No, China isn’t listening to CEO Jensen Huang about Nvidia chips. The Chinese government has reportedly set strict conditions for technology companies wanting to use Nvidia’s H200 AI chip. The Information reports that the Chinese government has told some technology companies that it will approve the purchase of Nvidia’s H200 AI chip only under special circumstances. These include university research. The report claims to cite two people with direct knowledge of the situation. The report said the Chinese government issued a “deliberately vague” directive to some technology companies telling them to buy chips only when “necessary,” but it was unclear what that meant.The move shows that China remains cautious about fully reopening the Chinese market to US semiconductor giant Nvidia, according to the report. The report further said that the Chinese government reportedly plans to hold additional meetings with more companies to implement the purchasing directive, but it is unclear whether the meetings will include new guidance.
The “yes” and “no” about Nvidia chips continue
The report comes on the heels of another report alleging that China has asked some companies to stop ordering H200 chips in favor of domestic companies in the AI vs. US supremacy battle. A recent report from Reuters claimed that NVIDIA is setting strict upfront requirements for Chinese companies purchasing its H200 AI chips, including full upfront payment. The company is reportedly being particularly strict in enforcing the terms, given that it is unclear whether Chinese regulators will greenlight the shipments. However, Nvidia denied the same in a statement. The US chipmaker said no upfront payment is required for the H200 chip. “We will never ask our customers to pay for products they do not receive,” the company said.Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently claimed that the company’s H200 chips are being ordered in large quantities from China. Chinese technology companies have reportedly ordered more than 2 million H200 chips, each costing about $27,000. According to reports, that number exceeded 700,000 Nvidia chips in stock. Chinese chipmakers like Huawei have developed AI processors such as the Ascend 910C, but its performance still falls short of Nvidia’s H200 for large-scale training of advanced AI models.
