Overview
- Nvidia now requires Chinese buyers to pay in full upfront for H200 orders with no cancellations or refunds, with insurance or collateral accepted in limited cases, Reuters reported.
- Chinese regulators have told some tech firms to pause new H200 orders as they weigh rules that could tie imports to mandatory purchases of domestic chips.
- Chinese companies have placed orders exceeding 2 million H200 units at about $27,000 each—roughly $54 billion in potential sales—against Nvidia’s inventory of about 700,000 chips.
- U.S. export licenses for H200 shipments to China remain under review, and the policy allowing limited sales requires Nvidia to pay 25% of related revenue to the U.S. government.
- Nvidia plans to ship an initial batch from existing stock before the Lunar New Year and has asked TSMC to ramp additional H200 production starting in the second quarter of 2026.