Nvidia H200 AI chips begin arriving in China

Nvidia H200 AI accelerators have begun arriving in China following a shift in U.S. export policies. Under new regulations established in December 2025, the U.S. government moved from an outright ban to a case-by-case licensing system for certain high-end processors, provided that sales do not reduce supply for American clients and that Chinese buyers follow strict verification procedures.

Reports indicate that Chinese technology giants ByteDance and Tencent have each received approximately 10,000 H200 processors over recent weeks. While the newer Blackwell B200 remains restricted, the H200 offers significantly higher computing power than the previously available H20.

Beijing has also implemented its own limitations. While several hundred thousand H200 chips may eventually be imported, authorities have reportedly limited orders and restricted their use to AI training on public data, prohibiting use for inference or other applications. Additionally, there are reports that China has requested companies keep much of the hardware in Hong Kong rather than mainland China.