The US has cleared about 10 Chinese companies, including Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, and JD.com, to purchase Nvidia's H200 AI chip, but not a single delivery has been made, according to sources. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang traveled to Beijing with President Trump for a summit with President Xi Jinping, hoping to unlock the stalled deals. The US Commerce Department approved the sales, but Chinese firms have pulled back after guidance from Beijing, which fears imports could weaken its push to develop domestic AI chips.
Each approved customer can purchase up to 75,000 chips under US licensing terms. However, Beijing's hesitation reflects a strategic calculation to support domestic chipmakers like Huawei. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told a Senate hearing that the Chinese central government has not allowed the purchases. Nvidia's share of China's AI accelerator market has effectively fallen to zero, Huang warned.