Reuters: 600,000 Huida H200 chips are stranded in Hong Kong and China has not approved large-scale imports

About 600,000 Nvidia advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip H200 are currently stored in Hong Kong, waiting to be shipped to China. (Reuters)

[Compiled by Lu Yongshan/Comprehensive Report] "Reuters" reported on the 5th that about 600,000 Nvidia (Nvidia) advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chips H200 are currently stored in Hong Kong, waiting to be shipped to China. Although there is demand from Chinese technology companies, the Beijing authorities have not approved the large-scale import of these chips.

The size of the shipment of H200 chips stored in Hong Kong has not been previously reported and reflects Beijing's reluctance to deepen its reliance on U.S. technology while Chinese companies need Nvidia's advanced computing power to meet surging demand for AI in the world's second-largest economy.

People familiar with the matter said that in recent months, Beijing authorities have allowed some of these H200 chips to enter China. One of the people familiar with the matter said that in the past few months, several large Chinese network companies have each obtained about 10,000 H200 chips. The person said that a small amount of H200 chips have arrived in China through middlemen and indirect channels, but did not specify the specific quantity.

However, these people familiar with the matter pointed out that the Beijing authorities have not yet approved the large-scale import of H200 chips into China.

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and China's National Development and Reform Commission did not respond to requests for comment. Nvidia and Chinese technology companies Alibaba, ByteDance, DeepSeek and Tencent also did not respond.

Although the H200 chip is not Nvidia's latest AI processor, Chinese alternatives still cannot reach its performance level, which is very useful when training AI models, especially when used in conjunction with Nvidia's software.

Since 2022, the export control measures imposed by the United States have been trying to restrict China's access to Nvidia's advanced chips and the equipment needed to manufacture these chips. With authorized supplies limited, Chinese buyers have turned to middlemen or purchased through indirect channels, pushing up prices in the unofficial market.

According to people familiar with the matter, as of the end of October, a server equipped with eight H200 chips in China sold for more than 6 million yuan (the same below, NT$29.58 million), which is about three times the price a year ago. The person familiar with the matter said that servers equipped with Nvidia's newer generation Blackwell chips (which are also subject to U.S. export controls) cost more than 20 million yuan (NT$98.61 million) per unit.

The United States once banned the export of H200 chips to China. Last year, the Trump administration allowed Nvidia to sell the chip to approved Chinese customers, a policy shift that followed U.S.-China trade talks. At the same time, Beijing authorities have also imposed restrictions on the import of H200, reflecting China's concerns about overreliance on American technology.

The American technology media "The Information" reported in July this year that relevant Chinese authorities have informed companies including Alibaba, ByteDance and Deepin that they may be allowed to purchase a limited number of H200 chips for training AI models. According to reports, the total number of approved chips may be less than 200,000, because the Beijing authorities hope that companies will give priority to using Chinese domestic processors in the reasoning process.

"Reuters" reported in October this year that ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent ordered more than 3 million Nvidia RTX Pro 5500 graphics cards, a product with weaker performance and compliance with export regulations, with a total price tag of more than US$35 billion (NT$1.15 trillion).