Not just Shanghai, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang likely to visit Beijing amid surprise customs block for H200 chip
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s annual visit to Shanghai for employee celebrations will likely take a detour from Beijing after the company’s H200 chips faced surprise import restrictions by Chinese customs officials last week, according to a report from Reuters.
The agency quoted a source as saying that Jensen Huang was in Shanghai on January 24 on a routine trip to attend the annual celebration with employees in China. But another source told Reuters that the next part of his trip included travel to Beijing, Shenzhen and Taiwan.
The report stated that Nvidia did not respond to questions on the subject. It added that Jensen Huang’s presence in Shanghai was first reported by Chinese publication Tencent News on January 23.
USA and China are sensitive about chip: Will the ‘ban’ be lifted?
In particular, in 2025, the chip manufacturer’s chief traveled to China at least three times, when US President Donald Trump banned the export of US chips to the eastern country. The report stated that he also met with the Chinese commerce minister in late July last year.
In December, Donald Trump allowed Santa Clara, California-based Nvidia to export its H200 chips to Chinese markets after Jensen Huang spent months lobbying the Trump administration and Chinese officials.
A source told the Financial Times last week that Nvidia was “caught off guard” by the restrictions, with early shipments due to arrive in Hong Kong later in the week. Two sources told the FT that there are now growing concerns that Chinese authorities will block the shipments.
China imposes customs restrictions on chip shipments: What happened?
According to the FT report, Chinese customs officials last week told a logistics company in Shenzhen that Nvidia’s H200 chips were not allowed into the country. A source told the publication that no reason was given for the ban, nor was there any indication whether this was a temporary step or a permanent ban.
Sources also said domestic technology companies were warned not to buy Nvidia chips and were told to prioritize domestic options instead. This has led tech giants such as Tencent, Alibaba and ByteDance to discuss limited purchases of H200 chips only for projects that require higher performance and easier maintenance.
(With input from institutions)
