600,000 Nvidia H200 chips await mainland approval in Hong Kong

By Marcus Bennett

Reuters reported on Nov. 5 that about 600,000 Nvidia H200 artificial-intelligence chips sat in Hong Kong, awaiting shipment to mainland China, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Reuters had not previously reported the stockpile’s size. It reflects Beijing’s reluctance to increase reliance on U.S. technology. Chinese companies, meanwhile, need advanced computing capacity for rising artificial-intelligence demand in the world’s second-largest economy.

The delay links two approval systems. Washington controls U.S. chip exports. Beijing controls entry into mainland China. H200 shipments can therefore stall between U.S. sale permission and Chinese import clearance.

Two approval systems govern H200 access

The H200 is not Nvidia’s newest processor. Chinese alternatives have not matched its capabilities. The chip is particularly useful for training models when combined with Nvidia’s software. U.S. export controls dating from 2022 have sought to restrict China’s access to advanced Nvidia chips and the equipment needed to manufacture them.

Washington barred H200 exports to China. The Trump administration later allowed Nvidia to sell them to approved Chinese customers last year. The policy shift followed U.S.-China trade negotiations. Beijing now limits imports because it wants less dependence on U.S. technology.

Unofficial routes absorb part of the demand

China has allowed some H200s into the mainland in recent months, three people said. Several major Chinese internet companies each obtained about 10,000 chips over the past few months, one person said. Three people said small quantities also moved through intermediaries and indirect routes. They did not specify how many.

Beijing has yet to approve large-volume imports, leaving authorized supply constrained as buyers turn to intermediaries and indirect routes, a response that has pushed up prices in the unofficial mainland market. Some shipments have entered the mainland, but they do not amount to broad clearance for large-volume imports.

What does the import freeze change for buyers?

At the end of October, one person familiar with the matter said an eight-card H200 server was offered for "more than 6 million yuan ($900,000)." That was about three times the price a year earlier. The same person said servers using Nvidia’s newer Blackwell chips were offered for "more than 20 million yuan apiece."

The Blackwell comparison shows that newer hardware does not remove the barrier: export-controlled Blackwell servers still carried offers above 20 million yuan in the same market.

For buyers, the freeze keeps authorized supply tight, lifts costs and encourages indirect purchasing routes. It also increases the relative appeal of less powerful, export-compliant cards. These were market offers rather than confirmed sale prices. The report used $1 = 6.6693 yuan for its conversions.

A limited approval policy focuses on training

The Information reported in July that Chinese officials had told Alibaba, ByteDance and DeepSeek they could receive permission to buy limited H200 quantities. The limited purchases would cover AI model training. Total approvals could amount to fewer than 200,000 chips. Beijing wanted those firms to prioritize Chinese processors for inference, which means running trained AI models.

That allocation directs scarce advanced chips toward model training while asking recipients to favor Chinese processors for the separate task of running models after training. The reported approval ceiling sat below the size of the Hong Kong stockpile. The July policy did not open unrestricted imports.

The fallback order carries a $35 billion sticker price

Reuters reported last month that ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent had ordered more than 3 million Nvidia RTX Pro 5500 graphics cards. The product is less powerful than H200 and compliant with U.S. export rules. The three companies’ combined sticker price exceeded $35 billion. That figure measures order value, not confirmed deliveries or realized revenue.

The order shows that buyers can still scale computing capacity within export rules, although the cards remain less powerful and the $35 billion figure covers sticker price rather than confirmed delivery revenue. No delivery schedule, unit price or company breakdown was provided.

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Development and Reform Commission did not respond to comment requests. Neither did Nvidia, Alibaba, ByteDance, DeepSeek or Tencent. The current stockpile and company totals therefore remain based on people familiar with the matter.