American chipmaking giant NVIDIA has reportedly told its Chinese clients about the company’s aim to start shipping its second-most powerful AI chips to the world’s second-largest economy before the Lunar New Year holiday in mid-February 2026.
“The US chipmaker plans to fulfil initial orders from existing stock, with shipments expected to total 5,000 to 10,000 chip modules – equivalent to about 40,000 to 80,000 H200 AI chips,” Reuters reported.
“NVIDIA has also told Chinese clients that it plans to add new production capacity for the chips, with orders for that capacity opening in the second quarter of 2026,” a source said.
Significant uncertainty, however, remains, as Beijing has yet to approve any H200 purchases, and the timeline could shift depending on Xi Jinping’s government decisions.
“The whole plan is contingent on government approval. Nothing is certain until we get the official go-ahead,” the source claimed.
The planned shipments, if greenlighted by Beijing, will mark the first deliveries of H200 chips to China after United States President Donald Trump said in December 2025 that Washington would allow such sales with a 25% fee. Before announcing the move, the Republican administration had launched an inter-agency review of license applications for H200 chip sales to China, making good on Donald Trump’s pledge to allow the sales. It is to be noted here that the previous Joe Biden government banned advanced AI chip sales to China, citing national security concerns.
“The H200, part of NVIDIA’s previous-generation Hopper line, remains widely used in AI despite being superseded by the firm’s newer Blackwell chips. NVIDIA has focused production on Blackwell and its upcoming Rubin line, making H200 supply scarce. Trump’s decision comes as China pushes to develop its domestic AI chip industry. Local firms have yet to match the H200’s performance, raising concerns that allowing imports could slow domestic progress,” Reuters noted.
Chinese officials held emergency meetings recently to discuss the matter and are weighing whether to allow shipments. One proposal would reportedly require each H200 purchase to be bundled with a set ratio of domestic chips.
For Chinese technology giants such as Alibaba Group and ByteDance, which have expressed interest in buying H200 chips, the potential shipments would provide access to processors roughly six times more powerful than the H20, a downgraded chip NVIDIA designed for China.