Beijing continues to withhold approval for large-scale shipments, permitting only a handful of major internet firms to import roughly 10,000 units each in recent months. Chinese authorities may ultimately cap total H200 approvals below 200,000 units to reduce reliance on American hardware while urging domestic chip adoption. With mainland supplies throttled, companies are increasingly sourcing hardware through indirect routes, pushing the price of an eight-card H200 server above 6 million yuan. To maintain AI operations, major platforms are spending tens of billions on alternative, export-compliant graphics processors.
Key points
Chinese regulators are intentionally constraining foreign hardware imports to stimulate s…: Chinese regulators are intentionally constraining foreign hardware imports to stimulate self-reliance and prioritize domestic AI processor development.
Stalled authorized import channels are fueling a massive, highly inflated secondary marke…: Stalled authorized import channels are fueling a massive, highly inflated secondary market across mainland China for restricted computing infrastructure.
Major internet companies are spending billions to pivot toward compliant, lower-tier chip…: Major internet companies are spending billions to pivot toward compliant, lower-tier chips to fulfill their immediate computational needs.
Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1
About 600,000 of Nvidia's advanced AI chips are stored in Hong Kong awaiting shipment to China.
About 600,000 of Nvidia's advanced artificial intelligence chips are stored in Hong Kong awaiting shipment to China, two people familiar with the matter said, as Beijing withholds approval for large-scale imports despite demand from technology firms.
The size of the stockpile of H200 chips, which has not previously been reported, reflects Beijing's reluctance to increase reliance on US technology. At the same time, Chinese companies need Nvidia's advanced computing power to meet surging AI demand in the world's second-largest economy.
China has allowed some of the chips to enter the country in recent months, three people familiar with the matter said. Several major Chinese internet companies have each obtained about 10,000 H200 chips in the past few months, one of the people said.
Three people said small quantities of chips had been shipped via intermediaries and indirect routes without specifying how many.
But Beijing has yet to approve large-volume imports into China, the people said.
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