Nvidia Plans to Begin Shipping Powerful H200 AI Chip to China by Mid-February

Nvidia plans to start shipping its powerful H200 AI chips to China before the Lunar New Year holiday in mid-February, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Reuters reports that AI chipmaker Nvidia is gearing up to start shipments of its second-most powerful AI chips, the H200, to China. Sources familiar with the matter have revealed that Nvidia aims to begin these shipments before the Lunar New Year holiday in mid-February. The initial orders are expected to be fulfilled from existing stock, with shipments totaling between 5,000 to 10,000 chip modules, equivalent to approximately 40,000 to 80,000 H200 AI chips.

This move comes after U.S. President Donald Trump announced earlier this month that Washington would allow such sales with a 25 percent fee, representing a major departure from the Biden administration’s previous ban on advanced AI chip sales to China due to national security concerns. The Trump administration has since launched an inter-agency review of license applications for H200 chip sales to China, making good on the president’s pledge to allow the sales.

Despite being superseded by Nvidia’s newer Blackwell chips, the H200, part of the company’s previous-generation Hopper line, remains widely used in AI applications. Nvidia has focused its production efforts on the Blackwell and upcoming Rubin lines, leading to a scarcity in H200 supply.

However, the planned shipments are contingent on government approval, and the timeline could shift depending on decisions made by Beijing. Chinese officials held emergency meetings earlier this month to discuss the matter and are weighing whether to allow the shipments. One proposal under consideration would require each H200 purchase to be bundled with a set ratio of domestic chips to support the development of China’s own AI chip industry.

For Chinese technology giants such as Alibaba Group and ByteDance, who have expressed interest in purchasing H200 chips, the potential shipments would provide access to processors that are roughly six times more powerful than the H20, a downgraded chip Nvidia designed specifically for the Chinese market.

The resumption of H200 chip sales to China marks a significant development in the ongoing trade tensions between the United States and China, particularly in the realm of advanced technology. As China pushes to develop its domestic AI chip industry, the availability of high-performance chips like the H200 could have a substantial impact on the country’s progress in this field.