Recent communications with officials have indicated to Alibaba, ByteDance, and DeepSeek that they may soon be able to purchase some H200 chips, the report mentioned.
Following the news, Nvidia’s shares increased by 1%. The chip manufacturer did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters, nor did the U.S. Commerce Department, which regulates the export of advanced AI chips.
The Ministry of Commerce in China also did not provide an immediate response to a request for comment, and Alibaba, ByteDance, and DeepSeek had not responded outside standard business hours.
The U.S. government has granted Nvidia the ability to sell its advanced H200 chips to China and has licensed about 10 Chinese companies for the purchases. However, Chinese authorities, intent on promoting local suppliers, have yet to provide approval.
In March, Reuters reported that Nvidia secured Beijing’s approval for selling the chips to China, according to sources, while Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang mentioned to CNBC that the company had received clearance from China around the same time.
Beijing is still assessing how many Nvidia chips to approve, which could be fewer than 200,000 in total, as reported by the Information, signifying less than half of the initial requests from the companies made earlier this year.
Last month, Reuters reported that Nvidia informed Chinese clients that its new “Vera” central processors for AI data centers could be available as early as August and that orders could commence.
Nvidia’s market share in China has virtually dropped to zero, as noted by Huang in October, due to U.S. export restrictions and Beijing’s drive for self-sufficiency in critical technologies.
The possible change in China’s position highlights the increasing computing capacity challenges facing the country’s technology firms.
