Nvidia H200 shipments enter China, ByteDance Tencent receive

Beijing has begun allowing limited imports of Nvidia H200 AI chips into mainland China in small batches, with ByteDance and Tencent each receiving about 10,000 units in recent weeks as part of a broader easing of export restrictions. The move comes under a framework where U.S. approvals permit up to 100,000 chips per Chinese buyer, while China simultaneously pushes domestic semiconductor development and keeps most imported hardware outside mainland China, including shipments to Hong Kong. The H200, based on Nvidia’s Hopper architecture, remains a capable tool for large-model training and inference and is still in demand despite not being Nvidia’s newest accelerator, which faces tighter export controls. Nvidia reportedly holds around 500,000 H200 chips in stock, a surplus tied to past restrictions and the current limited deployment, with distributors like Lenovo resuming orders for Chinese customers subject to regulatory clearance. The development highlights the tension between U.S. policy and China’s AI ambitions, as Chinese firms accelerate their own chip capabilities while seeking to maintain access to high-performance GPUs. Observers note the practical constraints in Hong Kong and mainland data-center capacity, which could influence how quickly these chips are utilized and how the policy balance evolves.