Reuters: US Approved H200 Chip Sales to 10 Chinese Firms but No Movement; Jensen Huang Accompanies Visit for Breakthrough

(CNA, Beijing, 14th, Comprehensive Foreign Report) Reuters, citing sources familiar with the matter, revealed that the U.S. government has approved about 10 Chinese companies to purchase NVIDIA's H200 chips, but so far, there has been no news of any deliveries. During U.S. President Trump's current visit to China, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang is also accompanying him and will try to seek a breakthrough.

One source revealed that Huang was not initially on the White House's list for the Beijing visit delegation but joined the entourage after being invited by Trump during a brief stop of the presidential aircraft 'Air Force One' in Alaska. This has raised expectations that the trip could resolve the stalemate in H200 sales in China.

Before U.S. authorities tightened export controls, Nvidia controlled about 95% of China's advanced chip market, and the Chinese market once accounted for 13% of its revenue. Huang had previously estimated that the Chinese AI market alone could reach a scale of $50 billion this year.

Sources, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, pointed out that the U.S. Department of Commerce has approved about 10 Chinese companies, including Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, and JD.com, to purchase H200 chips.

The sources revealed that a few distributors, including Lenovo and Hon Hai, have also received approval.

Under the terms of the U.S. licenses, buyers can purchase directly from Nvidia or through these intermediaries, with each approved customer allowed to purchase up to 75,000 chips.

The identities of these approved buyers and the nature of their cooperation with Nvidia and authorized distributors for the H200 have not been previously reported.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Commerce, which oversees semiconductor export controls, declined to comment. China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Development and Reform Commission did not respond to requests for comment.

Lenovo confirmed in a statement to Reuters that it 'is one of the companies approved to sell the H200 in China as part of Nvidia's export license.' Nvidia, Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, JD.com, and Hon Hai did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment. (Compiled by: Liu Shu-chin) 1150514