NVIDIA H200 in China, a Glimmer of Hope: Beijing May Authorize Limited Purchases
NVIDIA H200 in China, a Glimmer of Hope: Beijing May Authorize Limited Purchases
China may make a partial shift in its strategy regarding NVIDIA chips intended for artificial intelligence. According to reports from The Information, citing sources familiar with the matter, Chinese authorities are evaluating the possibility of allowing some of the country's leading AI companies to purchase a limited number of NVIDIA H200 accelerators.
Among the companies that could receive the green light are Alibaba, ByteDance, and DeepSeek, firms involved in developing generative artificial intelligence models and high-performance computing infrastructures. Based on available information, Chinese officials have communicated to them that a favorable decision could arrive in the coming weeks.
After increasing restrictions, the United States has allowed NVIDIA to sell the H200 in China through a specific authorization system and has granted licenses to around ten Chinese companies. However, Beijing had not yet completed the approval process, partly due to its intent to promote the development of its national semiconductor suppliers.
The total amount of chips that could be authorized is still under discussion. According to The Information, the final number may be below 200,000 units, less than half of the requests made by Chinese companies in previous months.
The potential supply of H200 falls within a context where Chinese technology companies are facing a growing demand for computing power to train and run increasingly complex artificial intelligence models. The limited availability of advanced accelerators is indeed one of the main obstacles to the growth of the Chinese AI sector.
Thus, the possible approval for limited supplies of H200 would represent a compromise between two opposing needs: on one hand, the necessity for Chinese companies to access greater computing power to compete in the AI sector, and on the other, the Chinese government's desire to strengthen the national semiconductor ecosystem and reduce dependence on foreign technologies.