China Gives Nod To Import First Batch Of Nvidia's H200 AI Chips: Report

China has reportedly given the green light for the first batch of Nvidia Corporation‘s (NASDAQ:NVDA) H200 artificial intelligence chips to be imported into the country.

Initial approvals were mainly granted to three major Chinese internet firms, while other companies await later clearances; the recipients were not named, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

It is unclear how many more companies will be approved in later rounds or what criteria Beijing is using to decide eligibility, according to the report.

Nvidia did not immediately respond to Benzinga‘s request for comment.

The approval, covering several hundred thousand H200 chips, was granted during Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's recent trip to China. Huang is in China to kick off the company’s annual celebrations, ahead of the mid-February Lunar New Year. Previous reports suggested that he was expected to meet prospective buyers in the country and top officials in Beijing to reopen the market for the company’s chips.

Nvidia H200 Chips Remain US–China Flashpoint

Nvidia's H200 AI chip has been a key point of tension between the U.S. and China. Despite the U.S. approval to ship Nvidia's H200 chips, Beijing had not cleared imports, pushing black-market servers with eight H200 GPUs to sell at a 50% premium, around 2.3 million yuan ($330,403). Other reports suggested that China has plans to limit approvals for local purchases of Nvidia's H200 AI chips to research-only uses.

However, Huang said last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that demand for H200 chips in China remains strong despite regulatory and supply challenges, with approvals reflecting China's focus on supporting major internet firms expanding data centers for AI competition with U.S. players.

According to a previous Reuters report, Chinese tech firms ordered over 2 million H200 chips last month, far more than Nvidia's available supply.

Benzinga’s Edge Rankings place Nvidia in the 97th percentile for quality and the 94th percentile for growth, reflecting its strong performance in both areas. Benzinga's screener allows you to compare Nvidia’s performance with its peers.  

Price Action: Over the past year, Nvidia stock surged 46.15%, as per data from Benzinga Pro. On Tuesday, the stock edged 1.10% higher to close at $188.52.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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