No H200s in China yet

U.S. officials say Nvidia has not sold any H200 AI accelerator chips into China despite U.S. export approval. (msn.com) Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on April 22 that “the Chinese central government has not let them, as of yet, buy the chips,” when asked about H200 shipments. (c-span.org) The White House and Commerce Department formally cleared conditional H200 exports in January, a package that included tight rules and a 25% U.S. revenue share for China‑bound sales. (cnbc.com) Nvidia’s chief financial officer, Colette Kress, told investors on Feb. 26 that while small amounts were approved by the U.S., the company “has yet to generate any revenue” from H200 sales into China. (cnbc.com) Industry sources say Chinese firms placed orders for more than 2 million H200 units for 2026, and Nvidia approached Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to boost production to meet that demand. (scmp.com) U.S. officials and reporting say shipments are stalled by disagreements over sale terms in both countries and by U.S. enforcement concerns about semiconductor diversion and smuggling. Chinese regulators have also signalled a preference for steering investment to domestic chipmakers and have been slow or conditional in approving imports, industry contacts told reporters. (scmp.com) Technically, the H200 is a high‑end Nvidia data‑center GPU built on Hopper, featuring 141 GB of HBM3e memory and high bandwidth aimed at training large language models and heavy AI workloads. (nvidia.com) With zero H200s confirmed in Chinese hands at the April 22 hearing, U.S. export approval alone has not yet opened the China market — the next steps hinge on Beijing’s import decisions and continued U.S. enforcement. (msn.com)