<span>STORY: China has approved the first batch of Nvidia’s H200 AI chips for import.</span><span>This is according to Reuters sources familiar with the matter.</span><span>It’s a notable shift as Beijing tries to balance its AI development needs with support for the domestic semiconductor industry.</span><span>:: File</span><span>The approval covers several hundred thousand H200 chips and was made during Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s visit to China this week, according to the sources, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.</span><span>The semiconductors will be awarded to tech giants ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent, with more firms waiting in line for future approvals, the two companies said.</span><span>None of the companies involved immediately responded to requests for comment.</span><span>The H200 is Nvidia’s second most powerful AI chip and a major flashpoint in US-China relations.</span><span>Washington has allowed exports, but Beijing’s hesitation to allow imports has been the main obstacle to shipments.</span><span>Chinese companies have already ordered more than two million H200 chips; That’s far beyond Nvidia’s current inventory, and while domestic alternatives like Huawei are improving, they still fall well short of the H200’s performance.</span><span>It remains unclear how many additional approvals Beijing will grant as it weighs access to foreign chips against long-term technological self-reliance.</span>
