After US-China geopolitical tensions led to the Chinese government banning local firms from buying NVIDIA's China-specific H200 GPUs, a report from The Information claims that the Chinese government is considering allowing local companies to buy the NVIDIA chips in restricted amounts. US chip restrictions have constrained China's ability to manufacture leading-edge chips, and additional restrictions on NVIDIA's products have sapped Beijing's ability to procure the necessary hardware to run the latest AI technologies.
Chinese Firms Alibaba, ByteDance & DeepSeek Might Be Allowed To Buy NVIDIA Chips, Says Report
Today's report follows an earlier one from Reuters, which had outlined that the Chinese government was considering restrictions on the country's advanced artificial intelligence models. Sources quoted by the publication added that Anthropic's Mythos and its cybersecurity capability had left Beijing worried, and its latest deliberations came after blocking social media giant Meta Platforms from acquiring a domestic firm.
NVIDIA, following US sanctions on its products, had developed a China-specific chip called the H200, which complied with all US export control laws. However, in response to the US export controls, the Chinese government had limited domestic companies from buying the chips. Now, as per The Information, the government might be interested in allowing some companies to buy limited numbers of the AI GPUs.
Today's report comes after NVIDIA's CEO Jensen Huang confirmed to CNBC that his firm had secured China's approval to sell its chips to local companies. In an interview in May, Huang outlined that his firm had not included any guidance from China sales in its financial estimates and in March, Huang had outlined to reporters at the GTC that his firm was gearing up to provide chips to Chinese companies.
According to The Information, the Chinese government is still deliberating the number of NVIDIA chips that will be allowed to be sold to the local firms. The magic number might be 200,000, believes the publication, which would be less than half of what the companies have requested. Some of the companies that could secure the Chinese approval include ByteDance, DeepSeek and Alibaba, as per The Information's sources.
While the chips under question belong to NVIDIA's Hopper generation, the firm's latest products are two generations ahead. NVIDIA plans to start shipments of its Rubin chips this Fall and of the next-generation Rubin Ultra GPUs in 2027. However, reports have suggested that some Rubin Ultra chips could be delayed to 2028 due to production constraints.
About the author: Ramish is a seasoned technology writer and editor with more than a decade of experience. He specializes in semiconductor fabrication and market analysis. With a background in finance and supply chain management - via his bachelors in Finance and a micromasters in supply chain management from MIT - Ramish combines financial rigor with deep industry insight to deliver accurate and authoritative coverage.
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