Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said China is still finalising the licensing process for imports of the company’s H200 AI chip, underscoring that sales remain uncertain despite strong demand from major Chinese tech firms and US permission on exports.
Huang made the remarks during a visit to Taipei, following a recent trip to China where he met partners and officials. The key hurdle is now Beijing’s side of the process — not Washington’s — with officials weighing how to manage access to high-end AI compute while supporting domestic chip development.
Separate reporting has said Chinese tech giants including ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent received conditional approval to purchase a first batch totaling more than 400,000 H200 chips, but that strict conditions have slowed the move from approval to firm orders.
Those conditions have been described as potentially covering how the chips can be deployed and whether imported chips must be paired with purchases of domestic alternatives — a policy approach that would let Beijing ease shortages while still steering demand toward Chinese suppliers.