It already has permission to sell its H200 GPU to 10 Chinese companies

Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance and JD.com are four of the ten Chinese companies that already have access to the GPU for artificial intelligence (AI) NVIDIA H200. According to Reutersthe US Department of Commerce, which is the institution that grants or denies export licenses, has authorized at least ten Chinese companies and several distributors, including Lenovo and Foxconn, to acquire Nvidia’s second most powerful AI chip.

This news comes almost two months after the US Government confirmed which was going to allow the company led by Jensen Huang to deliver its H200 chip to its Chinese customers. Nvidia announced in mid-March during its annual developer conference that the US and Chinese Administrations had unlocked the sale of this GPU in the nation led by Xi Jinping. However, so far not a single delivery has been made.

In practice, the blockade continues despite the March announcement. In all likelihood this is why Jensen Huang has joined the White House delegation participating in a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week. Nvidia is caught between the opposing interests of the US and China, and Huang is going to try to recover a market, the Chinese one, valued at 50 billion dollars in 2026 and which has come to represent 13% of its income.

Now the problem is the Chinese Government

Earlier this May, Jensen Huang confirmed that he is currently Its market share in China is 0%. Nvidia has not sold its AI chips in this country for several months because US regulations require Chinese buyers to demonstrate that they have implemented sufficient security procedures and that they will not use the GPUs for military purposes. In addition, Nvidia must also certify that it has sufficient inventory in the US. And all this bureaucracy is not being resolved quickly at all.

However, currently the greatest reluctance to sell Nvidia chips in China comes from Beijing. The Chinese Government wants to promote developing your own GPUs for AI at any price, which in October 2024 led him to send a recommendation to Chinese AI companies in which he asked them to use chips produced in China as much as possible.

Ten months later this recommendation became a requirement. And the Chinese Government is already forcing state-owned data centers throughout the country to use at least 50% Chinese integrated circuits in their servers. The Administration led by Xi Jinping has made this decision because it can afford it. And it is that It already has three very clear alternatives to Nvidia: Cambricon Technologies, Huawei and Moore Threads.

On the other hand, in the US there is also a pressure group that opposes the sale of advanced US AI chips in China. Chris McGuire, senior fellow on China and emerging technologies at the Council on Foreign Relations, holds that “any deal that allows Nvidia to sell more chips to China means fewer Nvidia chips for US companies and a minor US advantage over China in AI“. Besides, McGuire argues that “it is surprising that President Trump continues to allow himself to be convinced to put Nvidia’s interests before those of America.”

Image | Nvidia

More information | Reuters

In Xataka | The US remains committed to stopping China. Now it has targeted the second largest Chinese chip manufacturer