Beijing has told Chinese tech companies to hold off on their plans to acquire Nvidia H200 chips, according to some sources. This is only a temporary measure, though, reports The Information, as the central government is considering how it will go forward with allowing local businesses acquire the latest chips they can without jeopardizing its long-term goal of building up its homegrown semiconductor industry.
President Donald Trump approved exports of the H200 early last month, with Washington, D.C., charging Nvidia a 25% fee for every H200 GPU exported to China. Even though the H200 chip is the last-generation GPU following the release of Blackwell AI GPU, Chinese companies are still lining up to get their hands on these relatively powerful chips that domestic chipmakers struggle to match. The Chinese government claims that homegrown semiconductors can now match H20 and RTX Pro 6000D chips, but these are still far behind the latest Blackwell and even the just-allowed full-fledged Hopper AI GPUs.
