600,000 Nvidia H200 Chips Await China Approval in Hong Kong

About 600,000 Nvidia H200 artificial intelligence chips are being held in Hong Kong while awaiting Beijing’s approval for large-scale imports into mainland China, according to people familiar with the matter. The reported stockpile reflects a gap between Chinese companies’ demand for computing hardware and the limits on bringing the chips into the country. Several large Chinese internet companies have each obtained about 10,000 H200 chips in recent months, one person familiar with the matter said. Small quantities have also reached China through intermediaries and indirect routes, according to people familiar with those shipments, but the total delivered has not been established. Beijing has not approved large-volume imports, the sources said. The H200 is not Nvidia’s newest processor, but Chinese technology companies seek it for training and running artificial intelligence models. The reported restrictions reflect Beijing’s push to develop domestic chip suppliers and reduce reliance on US technology. Chinese officials have also indicated that companies should prioritize domestic processors for inference, the process of running a model after it has been trained. Limited supply...