TLDR
- China approved ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent to purchase over 400,000 Nvidia H200 AI chips combined
- The approvals came during Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s visit to China this week
- Beijing is attaching conditions to the approvals, which sources say are still being decided
- One source claims the licenses are too restrictive and customers aren’t converting approvals into actual orders yet
- Chinese tech firms previously ordered over 2 million H200 chips, far exceeding Nvidia’s available inventory
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China made a move this week that caught many by surprise. Beijing approved three of its biggest tech companies to buy Nvidia’s H200 AI chips.
🚨 BREAKING: China has given the green light for Nvidia $NVDA H200 chip purchases by ByteDance, Alibaba $BABA and Tencent, approving more than 400,000 units as restrictions ease – Reuters pic.twitter.com/NpPWV0dsFi
— Trader Edge (@Pro_Trader_Edge) January 28, 2026
ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent received the green light to purchase more than 400,000 H200 chips in total. Four sources familiar with the matter shared this information with Reuters.
The timing lines up with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s visit to China this week. One source said the regulatory approvals came during his trip.
NVIDIA Corporation, NVDA
The H200 represents Nvidia’s second most powerful AI chip. It delivers roughly six times the performance of Nvidia’s H20 chip, which was previously the most advanced chip Nvidia could sell to China.
Chinese tech firms had already placed orders for more than 2 million H200 chips. That number far exceeds Nvidia’s available inventory, according to previous reports.
Questions About Implementation
The approvals come with strings attached. The Chinese government is only granting them with conditions, though sources say those conditions are still being worked out.
One source painted a less optimistic picture. They said the licenses are too restrictive and customers aren’t yet converting the approvals into act