Key facts
- About 600,000 Nvidia H200 chips are stored in Hong Kong awaiting shipment to mainland China.
- Beijing has not approved large-volume H200 imports into mainland China.
- Several major Chinese internet companies each obtained about 10,000 H200 chips in recent months.
- An eight-card H200 server was offered for more than 6 million yuan ($900,000) in mainland China by the end of October.
- US export controls since 2022 have restricted China's access to advanced Nvidia chips.
About 600,000 of Nvidia's advanced artificial intelligence chips are being held in Hong Kong awaiting shipment to mainland China, according to two people familiar with the matter, as Beijing withholds approval for large-scale imports despite demand from Chinese technology firms. The previously unreported stockpile of H200 chips reflects Beijing's reluctance to deepen its reliance on US technology, even as Chinese companies need Nvidia's computing power to meet surging AI demand in the world's second-largest economy.
China has permitted 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 over the past few months, one of the people said. Three people said small quantities had been shipped through intermediaries and indirect routes, without specifying how many. Beijing has not approved large-volume imports into the mainland, 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 it has capabilities that Chinese alternatives have yet to match, making it useful for training AI models, particularly when combined with Nvidia's software. US export controls since 2022 have sought to restrict China's access to advanced Nvidia chips and the equipment needed to make them. With authorised supply 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 fall under US export controls, were offered for more than 20 million yuan apiece, the person added.
The H200 is caught 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, a policy shift that followed US-China trade negotiations. Beijing has imposed its own constraints on H200 imports, reflecting concerns about dependence on US technology.