No H200 Chips to China
- U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told lawmakers Nvidia's H200 AI accelerators have not yet been sold to Chinese companies. - He said Chinese firms face internal approval hurdles, leaving zero H200 chips sold to China as of his update. - That suggests Beijing, not Washington export controls, may be restricting purchases to protect domestic industry (reuters.com).
Nvidia’s H200 artificial intelligence chips still have not reached Chinese buyers, according to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s testimony to Congress on April 22. (reuters.com) Lutnick told lawmakers that Chinese companies have faced trouble getting approval from their own government, and he said the number of H200 chips sold to China stood at zero “as of today.” South China Morning Post reported he made the remark at a Senate hearing on April 23 in Washington. (reuters.com) (scmp.com) The update landed four months after the Trump administration opened a path for H200 exports to China. In January 2026, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security said license applications for Nvidia H200 and Advanced Micro Devices MI325X chips would move to case-by-case review instead of an automatic presumption of denial. (bis.gov) The H200 is one of Nvidia’s highest-end chips for training and running artificial intelligence models in data centers. Washington had treated chips at that level as sensitive because the same computing power can support military research, surveillance systems, and advanced weapons development. (nvidia.com) (bis.gov) Lutnick’s account shifts attention from U.S. export controls to China’s industrial policy. Reuters reported his explanation suggested Beijing may be slowing purchases of foreign chips while it tries to build demand for domestic suppliers. (reuters.com) That point sits inside a wider fight over whether China should keep buying Nvidia at all. Chinese officials have pushed companies toward local semiconductor ecosystems in recent years, while Huawei has emerged as the main domestic rival in artificial intelligence accelerators. (reuters.com) (thediplomat.com) The U.S. decision to allow limited H200 sales also drew criticism in Washington. In December 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Chuck Schumer, and other Democrats said the move risked giving China access to advanced computing that could strengthen its military and surveillance capabilities. (banking.senate.gov) Nvidia has argued for serving commercial customers under U.S. rules rather than ceding the market entirely to Chinese competitors. But as of Lutnick’s latest update, the practical result is simpler: Washington approved a channel, and Beijing has not let the chips in. (techcrunch.com) (reuters.com)
