Nvidia is the ball in the AI game. The US wants to share it with China, but it is not clear that China wants to play
The CES held in Las Vegas is the great showcase of technology, and if there has been a protagonist (apart from the chinese humanoid robots), that has been Jensen Huang. The CEO of Nvidia has become a key figure in the technology landscape. artificial intelligence because it is their chips that are shaping the data centersand the H200 It is the great proper name. It is the favorite for ‘assembling’ data centers and has become a throwing weapon in the commercial and technological warwith the United States vetoing the sale of the chip to China. But the situation seems to have relaxed and there are already those who point out that Nvidia will soon have access to a critical market. In short. We already mentioned it in December: Nvidia planned to increase production of the H200 chip for 2026. It was not something that responded only to the rise of artificial intelligence this year (which so many problems it is going to give us consumers), but to something much more important for the company: the reopening of the Chinese market. It all came after the announcement that the United States would allow exports, specifically, of the H200 to certain Chinese customers. They had to have a series of characteristics, such as being validated by the Department of Commerce, in addition to having a 25% rate on each sale. It’s outrageous, but while it was being debated whether China would now want to buy the H200s for its data centers (the country is developing its own solutions), from Reuters point to one piece of information: two million orders. Two million H200. After opening the door, it was reported that two Chinese giants such as Alibaba (e-commerce, cloud services and the model qwen) or ByteDance (TikTok, Douyin and AI chatbots) would be asking the Chinese Government to They will let them buy Nvidia chips to boost business. More recently, since Reuters A specific figure is pointed out: two million H200 chips (with ByteDance and Alibaba asking for 200,000 H200 each). It is the order that the Chinese companies would have already made, at the expense of receiving the green light to be able to formalize the purchase. Strict payment plan. The H200 is not the most cutting-edge chip that Nvidia has to offer, but it is one of the most used in data centers and the one that is allowed to export to China. Other more powerful ones remain restricted for national security reasons. And, although there is nothing official yet, Nvidia has set certain purchase conditions. Basically, transfer financial risk to customers: if imports are approved, they will have to make full payment in advance. Deposits were previously allowed to some companies, but this lack of regulatory clarity, market instability and a stock of H200 that may be insufficient if the market reopens require these measures. 50 billion dollars. With this operation, Nvidia must be crazy about music. In the middle of last year, Huang himself pointed out that the Chinese AI market had headed toward $50 billion, stating that “it would be a tremendous loss not to be able to address it as an American company.” That someone else says it may not have as much weight, but Nvidia is now in the focus of all the big technology companies. You don’t have to be naive. Messages like “the world is hungry for AI, let’s put American AI at the forefront” surely contributed to the relaxation of trade conditions approved by the Trump Administration a few weeks ago. In fact, if we say that Huang has been one of the great protagonists of the CES, it is not so much because of the technology presentation, but because of continuing to push that commercial narrative. The CEO pointed out in the ‘No Priors’ podcast that “the idea of decoupling from China for philosophical or national security reasons is not based on common sense”, also stating that he was optimistic about the relaunched relationship with China thanks to the new measures imposed by the United States. Because “China is an adversary, but also a partner. And the idea of decoupling is naive,” he said. What if I don’t want to now? But although Nvidia has increased production of its H200s in Taiwan in anticipation of an avalanche of orders from China, the ball is not in its court: it is in that of its potentially large new customer. Although everything boils down to “business,” in this case there is something else at stake: technological sovereignty. Huang believes that there will be no official announcement from China about the “openness” of its hand when it comes to letting its companies buy American technology and assumes that if orders are being placed it is because they can. Now, with the intensification of trade bans by the United States, China responded. Banned Apple devices in official centers, also purchasing from companies like Micron (which have also focused on AI, abandoning the RAM segment for users) and restricted the purchase of Nvidia chips Manufactured expressly for the Chinese market. At that time, Local companies such as Huawei or Cambricon have advanced with their solutionsachieving very high yields that are allowing China’s robotics and AI industry flourishes. Friction. However, the H200 remains the “standard” for many data centers, and there may be a desire to buy as much as possible in advance of possible future bans while they continue to develop their own chips. We will see if the wish of the American giant and some Chinese companies that see CUDA as the optimal system for AI. China is very clear that its “dragons” are enough to stand up to Western technology, the ‘Delete America’ plan is still going and accepting the H200 could perpetuate a situation of dependence on foreign technologysomething that the Government wants to avoid at all costs. In whatever way, depending on BloombergNvidia will start shipping H200 en masse in the short term. Images | Nvidia, Karola G, Pexels In Xataka | … Read more
