No, China is not listening to CEO Jensen Huang on Nvidia chips. The Chinese government reportedly has set strict conditions for technology companies wanting to use Nvidia’s H200 AI chips. According to a report in The Information, the Chinese government has told some tech companies that it would only approve their purchases of Nvidia’s H200 AI chips under special circumstances. These include for university research. The report claims to cite two people with direct knowledge of the situation. China’s government issued a “deliberately vague” directive, the report said, telling some technology companies to buy chips only when “necessary” but was unclear as to what that means.The move, as the report says, signals that China remains cautious about fully reopening the Chinese market to American chip giant Nvidia. The report further said that the Chinese government reportedly plans to hold additional meetings with more companies to deliver the purchase directive, though it is unclear whether those sessions will include any new guidance.
Yes and No on Nvidia chips continues
The report comes on heels of another report that claimed that China has asked some companies to halt their orders for the H200 chips, as it looks to prioritize domestic companies in its race to dominate AI vs America. A report in Reuters also claimed recently that Nvidia has set strict advance payment requirements for Chinese companies buying H200 AI chips, including a full payment upfront. The company is reported to be particularly strict in enforcing conditions given the lack of clarity on whether Chinese regulators would greenlight the shipments. However, in a statement Nvidia denied the same. The US chipmaker said that it does not require upfront payment for H200 chips. The company said it “would never require customers to pay for products they do not receive”.Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently claimed huge orders for the company’s H200 chips from China. Chinese technology companies reportedly have placed orders for more than 2 million H200 chips that are priced at around $27,000 each. As per reports, the number exceeded Nvidia’s inventory of 700,000 of the chips. While Chinese chipmakers like Huawei have developed AI processors including the Ascend 910C, their performance still lags behind Nvidia’s H200 for large-scale training of advanced AI models.
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