ByteDance and Alibaba have approached Nvidia to buy its powerful H200 AI chip after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would allow the chip to be exported to China, four people familiar with the situation told Reuters.
According to two sources, the Chinese tech giants are ready to place large orders for the H200, which is Nvidia’s second most powerful AI chip, if Beijing approves it. However, they are still worried about supply and have asked Nvidia for more clarity, one of the sources added.
Before Trump’s decision, the most advanced Nvidia AI chip that could legally be sold to China was the H20. The H200 is nearly six times more powerful than the H20.
China’s government has not yet responded clearly to Trump’s announcement. In recent months, it has banned government-funded data centers and Chinese tech firms from buying Nvidia AI chips, which has badly hurt Nvidia’s market share in China.
On Wednesday, The Information reported that Chinese regulators called in representatives from Alibaba, ByteDance, and Tencent and asked them to assess how many H200 chips they would need. Officials told them they would soon be informed of Beijing’s decision, according to the report.
Two other people familiar with Nvidia’s supply chain said that only a very small number of H200 chips are currently being produced, as the company is focusing more on its new Blackwell and upcoming Rubin chip lines.
Sources say Chinese companies are very interested in the H200 because it can train AI models far better than local Chinese chips, which are more suited for running (not training) AI systems.
A Reuters review of more than 100 tenders and academic papers found that top Chinese universities, data center operators, and even groups linked to China’s military have tried to get the H200 through grey-market channels.
Before Trump’s policy shift, selling H200 chips to China would have violated U.S. export laws that block AI chips above certain performance levels.
The reversal has created a strange situation. Older and weaker chips like Nvidia’s A100 and H100 are still banned from export to China, but the more powerful H200 is not.
Still, sources say Chinese companies expect that authorities will review their purchase requests and may require them to explain how the chips will be used. Beijing is weighing whether allowing H200 imports would slow down China’s own AI chip industry, which includes companies like Huawei and Cambricon.
Zhang Yuchun, a general manager at Chinese cloud provider SuperCloud, said, “The training of leading Chinese AI models still relies on Nvidia cards. I expect the major Chinese tech companies to buy a lot, but quietly.”
When asked about the H200, China’s foreign ministry said only that China values cooperation with the United States. The ministry declined to comment further on Wednesday.
