Nvidia H200 chips pile up in Hong Kong as Beijing stalls imports

Washington said yes, Beijing has not

Since 2022 the United States has used mechanisms to limit China's access to advanced chips and manufacturing equipment. In 2025 the Trump administration said H200 sales to approved Chinese customers would be allowed after trade talks, and in May 2026 it was reported that 10 companies, including Alibaba, Tencent and ByteDance, had received the green light.

In its quarterly report, Nvidia admits it has not been able to sell all the H200s it holds US licenses for in China because of Chinese restrictions. Those sales still await Beijing's approval.

Reports about plans announced in July involving Alibaba, ByteDance and DeepSeek pointed to limited permits to buy H200s for training, possibly totaling fewer than 200,000 chips. Beijing also wanted companies to prioritize Chinese processors for inference, meaning running models once trained.

Prices climb on the gray market

The shortage of authorized supply is pushing up prices on the unofficial market. At the end of October, a server with eight H200s was reportedly offered for more than 6 million yuan, roughly triple the price a year earlier.

The H200 remains useful for training AI models, even though Nvidia sells newer generations, and reliance on the company is a central point in China's debate over building its own AI industry. Meanwhile, orders continue for less powerful products that do comply with export rules: in October, ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent were reported to have ordered more than three million Nvidia RTX Pro 5500 cards, with a combined list price above $35 billion.