Nvidia plans to resume shipments of its H200 AI chips to China before the Lunar New Year, a move made possible by a recent policy shift under the Trump administration [[1]]. The shipments, subject to a 25% tariff, represent a reversal of the Biden administration’s restrictions on advanced technology exports to Beijing, citing national security concerns [[2]].While initial deliveries will draw from existing stock,Nvidia also intends to open orders for new production capacity later in 2026,pending final approval from Chinese authorities.
Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, displays a Blackwell GeForce RTX 50 series GPU and a laptop equipped with RTX 5000 during a speech at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, on January 6, 2025.
FOTO: Patrick T. Fallon / AFP / Profimedia
Nvidia, the world’s leading manufacturer of graphics processing units, has informed its Chinese customers that it intends to begin delivering its second-most powerful AI-enabled chip before the Lunar New Year, which falls in mid-February, according to three sources familiar with the matter.
The American chipmaker plans to fulfill initial orders from existing inventory, with shipments estimated to total between 5,000 and 10,000 chip modules – equivalent to approximately 40,000 to 80,000 H200 AI processors, the first two sources said.
Nvidia has also communicated to its Chinese customers its plans to add new production capacity for chips, with orders for this capacity opening in the second quarter of 2026, a third source revealed.
However, significant uncertainty remains, as Beijing has yet to approve any purchases of the H200 processors, and the timeline could shift depending on decisions from the Chinese government, the sources added.
Policy Shift
“The entire plan hinges on government approval,” the third source stated. “Nothing is certain until we receive official clearance.”
The sources made these statements under the condition of anonymity due to the confidential nature of the discussions. Nvidia and China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters.
The planned deliveries would mark the first shipments of H200 chips to China since President Donald Trump announced earlier this month that Washington would allow such sales with a 25% tariff. This move signals a potential easing of restrictions on technology exports to the region.
Reuters reported last week that the Trump administration had launched an interagency review of license applications for H200 chip sales to China, fulfilling a campaign promise to permit the sales.
The measure represents a significant policy change from the Biden administration, which had prohibited sales of advanced AI chips to China, citing national security concerns.
The H200 chip, part of Nvidia’s previous-generation Hopper line, remains widely used in AI processing despite being superseded by the company’s newer Blackwell chips. Nvidia has been prioritizing production of Blackwell and its future Rubin line, leading to a shortage of H200 graphics processors.
Trump’s decision comes as China is making a concerted effort to develop its domestic AI chip industry. However, local firms have yet to match the performance of the H200 processors, raising concerns that allowing imports could slow domestic progress.
Chinese officials held emergency meetings earlier this month to discuss the issue and are considering whether to allow the shipments, Reuters reported in December. One proposal under consideration would require each H200 purchase to be accompanied by a specified percentage of domestically produced chips.
For Chinese tech giants such as Alibaba Group and ByteDance, which have expressed interest in purchasing H200 chips, the potential deliveries would provide access to processors roughly six times more powerful than the H20, a lower-tier chip Nvidia designed for China.
