China has approved the limited import of Nvidia's H200 chips to support domestic artificial intelligence development. The move aims to help local firms keep pace with U.S. competitors, according to reports. The H200 is at least two generations behind Nvidia's most advanced chips, which are restricted due to U.S. export controls. The Financial Times reported that ByteDance and Tencent each received around 10,000 H200 processors, with more companies potentially following. The U.S. allows up to 100,000 H200s per company, but Beijing is prioritizing its own manufacturers like Huawei. Shipments to Hong Kong are also permitted, though the city lacks the necessary data centers and power infrastructure. Purchases require approval from the National Development and Reform Commission, a key planning agency in China.
Chinese companies are making progress in AI technology, with Moonshot developing the K3, Alibaba working on Qwen3.8, DeepSeek on DeepSeek V4, and Z.ai on GLM-5.3. However, they still lag behind U.S. providers in available inference capacity. After a surge in demand, Moonshot had to turn away customers. Nvidia maintains a stockpile of about half a million H200s.
China's decision to allow H200 chips reflects its ongoing efforts to bolster its AI industry amid U.S. export restrictions. The move highlights the challenges Chinese firms face in accessing advanced hardware.
Source: thedecoder
