"China Allows Import of Nvidia H200 Chips to Mainland... ByteDance and Tencent Secure Supplies"

"ByteDance and Tencent Secure 10,000 Chips Each"
"Chinese Authorities Approve Use of H200 Chips in Hong Kong"

Reuters Yonhap News

According to a report by the Financial Times (FT) on August 19 (local time), citing sources, the Chinese government has allowed a portion of Nvidia’s H200 artificial intelligence (AI) chips to be brought into mainland China.

FT reports that in recent weeks, ByteDance and Tencent have each secured around 10,000 H200 chips, and it is expected that some other big tech companies in China will also be able to obtain a similar quantity soon. Previously, these companies had received authorization from the U.S. government to purchase up to 100,000 H200 chips each.

Sources say that Chinese authorities have only recently begun relaxing regulations on U.S.-made chips, aiming to enable major domestic AI developers to continue building advanced models.

Accordingly, a source said that some Nvidia partners, including Lenovo, notified their Chinese customers last week that they can resume orders for products equipped with H200 chips. These partners integrate Nvidia chips with central processing units (CPUs) and other networking equipment to sell them as AI servers.

However, in order to support domestic semiconductor companies, the Chinese government requires that most H200 chips be used only outside of mainland China. In addition to the limited quantity of H200 chips that can be brought into mainland China, Chinese regulators are said to have allowed companies to ship these H200 chips to Hong Kong for local use.

There are not enough AI data centers in Hong Kong to accommodate the H200 chips, creating challenges for Chinese companies. One source commented, "We are in a dilemma. Everyone needs these chips, but it is difficult to find ways to use them in Hong Kong," adding, "The hope is that controls will gradually be relaxed."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.