US-China geopolitical tensions prompted Beijing to ban local firms from buying Nvidia’s China-specific H200 GPUs.
Now, a Reuters report claims the Chinese government is considering allowing domestic companies to buy chips in limited numbers.
US chip restrictions have already limited China’s ability to make leading-edge semiconductors, while extra curbs on Nvidia products have made it harder for Beijing to obtain hardware for advanced AI systems.
Alibaba, ByteDance and DeepSeek are likely to be among the firms allowed to buy limited numbers of Nvidia chips.
Nvidia created the H200 as a China-specific chip after US sanctions hit its products. The chip was designed to comply with US export control laws, but Beijing limited domestic companies from buying it anyway.
The report follows Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang telling CNBC that his outfit had secured Chinese approval to sell chips to local companies.
Huang said in May that Nvidia had not included China sales guidance in its financial forecasts. In March, during GTC, he said the company was preparing to supply chips to Chinese firms.
Beijing is still debating how many Nvidia chips can be sold locally. The number could be 200,000, which would be less than half of what companies requested.
The chips in question belong to Nvidia’s Hopper generation, which is hardly the newest shiny thing in the cupboard.
Nvidia’s latest products are two generations ahead. The company plans to start shipping Rubin chips this autumn and Rubin Ultra GPUs in 2027.
Reports have suggested some Rubin Ultra chips could slip into 2028 because of production constraints.
That leaves China weighing whether slightly older Nvidia kit is better than waiting for home-grown silicon to catch up while the AI race keeps burning cash.
