NVIDIA H200 sales to China reportedly approved, but shipments have not started yet

NVIDIA may finally regain a small path back into China’s AI chip market.

The US government has reportedly approved sales of NVIDIA’s Hopper H200 AI GPU to selected Chinese companies. Around 10 firms have been cleared to buy the chips, including Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, and JD. Local distributors such as Lenovo and Foxconn are also reportedly approved to help supply the market.

The approval comes as NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang joins US President Donald Trump’s China visit, where technology and trade are expected to be major topics.

The H200 is not NVIDIA’s newest AI chip, but it is still a powerful accelerator. For Chinese AI companies, getting access to H200 units would be a major improvement after US export controls cut off access to NVIDIA’s most advanced hardware.

The reported approval comes with limits. Each approved Chinese firm can buy up to 75,000 H200 GPUs. If all 10 companies purchased the maximum amount, that would mean up to 750,000 GPUs in total.

That sounds large, but it is still modest compared with the scale of AI infrastructure being built in the US. Some single American AI companies are already operating hundreds of thousands of NVIDIA GPUs. xAI alone reportedly has more than half a million GPUs across its Colossus and Memphis facilities.

NVIDIA’s position in China has changed dramatically. Before US restrictions, the company reportedly held around 95 percent of China’s AI accelerator market. After the curbs, Jensen Huang has said NVIDIA’s official share in China is now effectively zero.

That vacuum helped domestic Chinese chipmakers, especially Huawei, gain momentum. Chinese AI firms were pushed toward local alternatives as US export rules tightened.

The H200 approval could be the start of a partial recovery, but it does not mean NVIDIA is returning to its old position. The company has also said its newest Blackwell and Rubin chips are its most advanced AI products and will not be sold to China.

There have been rumors about future China focused Blackwell B30 chips, but nothing is confirmed. If US China ties continue to ease, a limited China compliant NVIDIA roadmap could become possible later. For now, H200 access is the main reported opening.

This matters for both sides. Chinese AI companies want stronger hardware to train and run advanced models. NVIDIA wants access to a market it once dominated. The US government, meanwhile, is trying to balance business interests with national security concerns around advanced AI technology.

The key detail is that no H200 deliveries have reportedly happened yet. Approval is only the first step. Actual shipments, volumes, timing, and restrictions will determine how meaningful this deal becomes.

For NVIDIA, the H200 approval could reopen the door to China, but only slightly. It may help rebuild some presence in the market, but it will not restore the company’s former dominance overnight.