China Is Carefully Letting Tech Giants Buy Nvidia’s H200 Chips
- Chinese companies can now get U.S. chips, but with tight restrictions. - ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent get the green light to import chips from Nvidia. - Other companies are in line for approval.
China is slowly allowing its companies to buy Nvidia’s powerful AI chip called the H200. It has already approved three major tech companies, including ByteDance (owner of TikTok), Alibaba, and Tencent. They can buy 400,000 H200 chips combined. Several others are waiting in the queue. However, there are still big restrictions in place.
This is a big deal because China had been strongly hesitant earlier. The U.S. has already approved Nvidia's sale of these chips to China. So, is it a green light from China and the U.S.? Or just a temporary approval? What kind of conditions might China impose on the companies? For all that, learn more.
Companies That Got Nvidia’s H200 Chip Approval
China is apparently walking on a tightrope when it comes to Chips. Chinese companies need them badly to build AI tools, run huge data centres, and compete with U.S companies. China wants to protect and grow its own chip industry, but at the same time needs Nvidia's chips (because the H200 is Nvidia’s second-most powerful AI chip, 6 times more powerful than H20). So far, ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent have received approvals, with the condition that they can buy only 400,000 H200 chips combined. And others are in line for theirs.
Is It a Full Green Light From China to Nvidia’s H200 Chips?
The U.S. gave the green light, but eventually it's up to the Chinese government to let the chips in. Recently (earlier this month), Chinese customs had even told agents: “These chips are not allowed in.”
So, no, it's conditional at the moment with rules attached. Exact rules are yet to be finalised. One source quoted by Reuters said that the rules are so strict that companies haven’t yet turned approvals into actual purchases. China has warned its companies earlier that "Only buy foreign chips if you really need them.”
China has discussed an idea before that if the companies buy Nvidia chips, they must also buy a number of Chinese-made chips. Therefore, China gets advanced tech chips in the country, yet its companies still buy local ones (from the Chinese chip makers like Huawei).
Final Thoughts…
Several things are quite unclear, like how many more companies China will get approval for. Who qualifies and why. Whether the conditions will strictly force companies to buy Chinese chips alongside Nvidia’s, or not, there will be more updates on the same. Keep in touch.
Varad Kitey
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