The United States has cleared roughly 10 Chinese companies to purchase Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA, XETRA:NVD)'s H200 artificial intelligence chips, according to a Reuters report citing people familiar with the matter.
The approved firms include major technology companies such as Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance and JD.com, the sources said. The approvals also extend to several intermediaries, including Lenovo and Foxconn, which have been authorized to act as distributors of the chips in China under US licensing terms.
Despite the approvals, no H200 chips have been delivered to Chinese buyers to date, the sources said. Under the terms described, each approved customer may purchase up to 75,000 chips either directly from Nvidia or through authorized distributors.
The development comes as Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang is in China this week, a trip that was not initially part of a White House delegation to Beijing. According to a source, Huang joined the trip after an invitation from US President Donald Trump, who was travelling to a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The discussions take place against the backdrop of ongoing US-China tensions over advanced semiconductor technology, with Washington maintaining export controls on high-end AI chips while selectively granting licenses for certain products.
Wedbush Securities analysts said the approvals reflect a broader US green light for shipments of Nvidia H200 chips, or equivalent AMD MI-series accelerators, to around 10 Chinese firms.
The brokerage said the framework allows Chinese entities to purchase chips either directly from Nvidia or through approved original equipment manufacturers, but noted that no H200 units have yet reached China.
Wedbush added that Beijing’s apparent reluctance to support domestic firms’ purchases of US-made AI accelerators may be contributing to the lack of actual deliveries, despite the licensing approvals.
The firm said this week’s US-China discussions, including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s participation, could help determine whether the current impasse shifts.
The analysts also highlighted the “either/or” structure involving Nvidia and AMD, along with purchase caps, suggesting the setup could ultimately favor Nvidia due to the software ecosystem surrounding its CUDA platform, which remains widely used for AI model training.
Shares of Nvidia traded higher following the report, up 4% at about $235.