Huawei Gets Nvidia H200 Approval as China Tightens Scrutiny
huawei sits at the center of a sharper China fight after Nvidia won approval to sell H200 AI chips to 10 Chinese companies. Beijing then quickly placed Nvidia’s GPUs under tighter government scrutiny.
The approved buyers reportedly include Alibaba, JD.com, ByteDance, and Lenovo. Nvidia still controls an estimated 80% to 90% share of the AI GPU market, so any access to China is meaningful even after export restrictions narrowed the country’s access to advanced chips.
Nvidia China Sales
China once accounted for roughly 20% to 25% of Nvidia’s data center-related sales before those restrictions hit. That makes the H200 approval more than a routine sales note, because it suggests a possible reopening of demand in a market that had already been squeezed from both sides.
The practical problem is that Beijing’s response arrived immediately. Tighter scrutiny can slow buying, complicate approvals, and reduce the value of a green light even when the chip itself is available to named customers.
Lisa Su Meets He Lifeng
Lisa Su, AMD’s chief executive officer, met with China’s vice premier He Lifeng in Beijing on Monday at his request. That meeting matters because AMD holds only a small share of China’s AI market, yet the source says it may be viewed as strategically less threatening.
Trump’s China trip also included a delegation of U.S. executives as part of a push to revive business ties between the United States and China. For buyers and suppliers, the immediate read is blunt: Nvidia has approval on paper, but China is signaling that the company’s chips will keep facing political friction.
