Hong Kong: About 600,000 of Nvidia's advanced artificial intelligence chips are being stored in Hong Kong awaiting shipment to mainland China, two people familiar with the matter said, as Beijing withholds approval for large-scale imports despite demand from technology firms.
The size of the H200 chip stockpile, which has not previously been reported, reflects Beijing's reluctance to increase its reliance on US technology. At the same time, Chinese companies need Nvidia's advanced computing power to meet surging AI demand in the world's second-largest economy.
China has allowed some of the chips to enter the country in recent months, three people familiar with the matter said. Several major Chinese Internet companies have each obtained about 10,000 H200 chips in the past few months, one of the people said.
Small quantities have also been shipped through intermediaries and indirect routes, three people said, without specifying how many.
However, Beijing has yet to approve large-volume imports into mainland China, the people said.
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the 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.
The H200 is not Nvidia's newest AI processor, but its capabilities remain unmatched by Chinese alternatives in some areas, making it useful for training AI models, particularly when combined with Nvidia's software.
US export controls introduced since 2022 have sought to restrict China's access to advanced Nvidia chips and the equipment needed to manufacture them.
With authorised supplies constrained, Chinese buyers have turned to intermediaries and indirect routes, pushing up prices in the unofficial market.
An eight-card H200 server was offered for more than 6 million yuan ($900,000) in mainland China by the end of October, about three times its price a year earlier, one person familiar with the matter said.
Servers using Nvidia's newer Blackwell chips, which are subject to US export controls, were offered for more than 20 million yuan apiece, the person added.
TRADE AND TECHNOLOGY TENSIONS
The H200 chip is caught up in broader trade and technology tensions between Washington and Beijing.
The United States barred exports of the H200 to China before President Donald Trump's administration gave Nvidia permission last year to sell the chips to approved Chinese customers. The policy shift followed US-China trade negotiations.
Beijing has imposed its own restrictions on H200 imports, reflecting concerns about dependence on US technology.
Technology publication The Information reported in July that Chinese officials had told companies, including Alibaba, ByteDance and DeepSeek, that they could receive permission to buy limited quantities of H200 chips for training AI models.
It reported that total approvals could amount to fewer than 200,000 chips and that Beijing wanted firms to prioritise Chinese processors for inference — the process of running AI models.
Reuters reported last month that ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent had ordered more than 3 million Nvidia RTX Pro 5500 graphics cards, a less powerful product that complies with export restrictions, with a combined sticker price exceeding $35 billion. — Reuters
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