Nvidia H200 sales to China stalled
- U.S. commerce secretary Howard Lutnick told lawmakers Nvidia has not sold any H200 AI chips to Chinese companies. - He said 'zero' H200 chips had been sold as of April 22, attributing the pause to Chinese approval delays. - That shows Beijing's internal approval process can block purchases even after U.S. export clearance, constraining market access. ( )
Nvidia still had not sold a single H200 artificial intelligence chip to a Chinese company as of April 22, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told lawmakers. (reuters.com) Lutnick said the total was “zero” in Senate testimony on April 22 and said the holdup was on the Chinese side, not the U.S. side. South China Morning Post reported he pointed to Beijing’s approval process and a “delicate balance” in talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. (reuters.com, scmp.com) The H200 is Nvidia’s second-most-powerful artificial intelligence chip for training and running large models, and Washington cleared it for China in January 2026. South China Morning Post reported that approval as part of a Trump administration effort to balance export controls with U.S. chipmakers’ overseas sales. (scmp.com) That left two gates for any deal: U.S. export permission and Chinese import approval. Lutnick’s testimony showed that passing the first gate did not guarantee the second. (reuters.com, scmp.com) China had signaled interest earlier this year. In January, South China Morning Post reported that Beijing had begun approving H200 imports and that more than 400,000 chips were reportedly cleared for buyers including ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent. (scmp.com) Demand also looked large on paper. Reuters, citing sources in a December 31, 2025 report carried by South China Morning Post, said Chinese technology companies had placed orders for more than 2 million H200 chips for 2026 and Nvidia had asked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to raise output. (scmp.com) The stall follows a year of shifting chip rules. Nvidia said the U.S. government told it on April 9, 2025 that exports of its H20 chip to China would require a license, and the company recorded a $4.5 billion charge tied to H20 inventory and purchase obligations after that change. (nvidianews.nvidia.com) Nvidia later said on July 14, 2025 that it would resume H20 sales to China and would introduce a new China-compliant graphics processing unit, or GPU. That showed Nvidia was still trying to preserve access to the China market even as U.S. controls tightened around its most advanced products. (blogs.nvidia.com) Chinese officials and industry figures have also warned domestic companies against depending too heavily on U.S. chips. South China Morning Post reported in January that semiconductor expert Wei Shaojun urged caution because Washington’s policy had swung between easing and tighter pressure. (scmp.com) For now, the headline number is still Lutnick’s: zero. After three months of U.S. clearance, Nvidia’s H200 remained unsold in China as of April 22. (reuters.com, scmp.com)
