China’s H200 Import Curbs Leave 600,000 in Hong Kong

China is restricting imports of Nvidia H200 chips to reduce reliance on advanced U.S. semiconductors, leaving about 600,000 units stored in Hong Kong unable to reach the mainland. Reuters, citing sources on the 5th local time, reported that the chips were awaiting shipment. Demand for AI computing among Chinese companies is growing, but authorities have held back approval for large-scale imports, constraining supply.

In recent months, authorities have allowed some shipments in, and major internet companies reportedly secured 10,000 H200 chips each. Small quantities have also entered through intermediaries, but large-scale imports remain unapproved. The restrictions follow a policy of reducing dependence on U.S. technology. The H200 is not Nvidia’s latest AI chip, but its performance is beyond that of Chinese alternatives so far, and it is used to train AI models. The report said the chip is especially useful when paired with Nvidia software.

The United States has restricted China’s access to advanced Nvidia chips since 2022. The Trump administration allowed H200 sales to some Chinese companies last year; earlier, the United States had approved sales to 10 Chinese firms, including Alibaba, Tencent and ByteDance. Chinese authorities are reportedly encouraging domestic chips for inference, the process of running trained AI models, while demand for Nvidia products remains for model training that requires high computing performance.

With official supply constrained, prices in China’s unofficial market are surging. Sources said that in late October, a mainland server containing eight H200 chips was offered for more than 6 million yuan, about three times its price a year earlier. Servers equipped with Blackwell chips, which are subject to U.S. export controls, were offered for more than 20 million yuan each. ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent had previously ordered more than 3 million Nvidia RTX Pro 5500 graphics cards that comply with U.S. export control guidelines, reportedly worth more than $35 billion in total.

China is restricting imports of Nvidia H200 chips to reduce reliance on advanced U.S. semiconductors, leaving about 600,000 units stored in Hong Kong unable to reach the mainland. Reuters, citing sources on the 5th local time, reported that the chips were awaiting shipment. Demand for AI computing among Chinese companies is growing, but authorities have held back approval for large-scale imports, constraining supply.

In recent months, authorities have allowed some shipments in, and major internet companies reportedly secured 10,000 H200 chips each. Small quantities have also entered through intermediaries, but large-scale imports remain unapproved. The restrictions follow a policy of reducing dependence on U.S. technology. The H200 is not Nvidia’s latest AI chip, but its performance is beyond that of Chinese alternatives so far, and it is used to train AI models. The report said the chip is especially useful when paired with Nvidia software.

The United States has restricted China’s access to advanced Nvidia chips since 2022. The Trump administration allowed H200 sales to some Chinese companies last year; earlier, the United States had approved sales to 10 Chinese firms, including Alibaba, Tencent and ByteDance. Chinese authorities are reportedly encouraging domestic chips for inference, the process of running trained AI models, while demand for Nvidia products remains for model training that requires high computing performance.

With official supply constrained, prices in China’s unofficial market are surging. Sources said that in late October, a mainland server containing eight H200 chips was offered for more than 6 million yuan, about three times its price a year earlier. Servers equipped with Blackwell chips, which are subject to U.S. export controls, were offered for more than 20 million yuan each. ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent had previously ordered more than 3 million Nvidia RTX Pro 5500 graphics cards that comply with U.S. export control guidelines, reportedly worth more than $35 billion in total.