The US Department of Commerce approved approximately 10 Chinese companies, including Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, and JD.com, to purchase Nvidia's H200 AI chips as of May 14, 2026 [1, 2]. Distributors such as Lenovo and Foxconn also received approval to sell the H200 chips in China under the same licensing terms [1, 2].
Each approved buyer can purchase up to 75,000 H200 chips, according to US licensing restrictions [1, 2]. However, no deliveries of the H200 chips to these Chinese customers have taken place so far [1, 2].
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang attended a US White House delegation trip to Beijing after an invitation from then-President Donald Trump, who met with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a summit [1, 2]. Huang’s participation aimed to support efforts to unlock chip sales to China, a key market for the company.
Before the US imposed export controls, Nvidia controlled about 95% of China’s advanced chip market, and China accounted for 13% of Nvidia’s total revenue [1, 2]. Huang estimated China’s AI market alone would be worth roughly US$50 billion in 2026, underscoring the region’s significance for Nvidia’s business [1, 2].
US Department of Commerce and Chinese regulatory bodies declined to comment publicly on the approvals or the ongoing sales process [1, 2].
The approvals followed a May 14 decision clearing these firms to buy the chips and coincided with Huang’s visit to Beijing with the US delegation seeking to ease restrictions and boost sales [1, 2].
