US Clears Sales of Nvidia’s H200 Chips to 10 Chinese Firms, But Not a Single Unit Has Shipped
May 14, 2026 – 7:41 am
Washington has approved Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, JD.com, and six other Chinese companies to purchase Nvidia’s H200 AI accelerator, with each licence permitting up to 75,000 units. However, despite these approvals, not a single chip has been delivered.
According to sources familiar with the licences (first reported by Reuters on May 14), the US Commerce Department’s green lights cover significant volumes:
- Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, and JD.com are among the approved entities, along with several distributors like Lenovo and Foxconn.
- Each company can purchase up to 75,000 H200s under their respective licences.
On paper, this represents one of the largest single-tranche openings to China since the Biden administration tightened controls on high-end AI silicon in late 2023.
However, in practice, nothing has moved. Chinese tech firms have paused H200 orders after Beijing instructed them to do so early this year, conducting a supply-chain security review aimed at reducing dependence on US chips. While order books exist, actual deliveries are yet to occur.
Jensen Huang, NVIDIA’s CEO, found himself added to President Trump’s Beijing trip after being initially left off the White House delegation. This change was perceived as an attempt to prevent China hawks in the Republican caucus from escalating tensions over NVIDIA’s market access.
Huang will now travel to Beijing alongside Trump, Tim Cook, and Elon Musk with two key requests:
- A green light from Beijing for H200 deliveries already approved in Washington.
- Reciprocal easing of Chinese export curbs on rare-earth magnets and chip-grade gallium.
The Chinese side is expected to push for reduced US restrictions on chipmaking equipment and EUV-adjacent tooling.
The H200 is Nvidia’s variant permitted under the Trump administration’s case-by-case review framework, introduced in December 2023 to replace the previous presumption of denial.
With each approved buyer’s 75,000-unit ceiling, the maximum theoretical order book for these licences could amount to approximately 750,000 chips if every licence is fully drawn.
NVIDIA has confirmed the existence of orders, with Huang stating in March that they had received purchase orders from Chinese customers and restarted H200 production to fulfill them. However, he has not publicly disclosed when, or if, these orders will translate into actual shipments.