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Reuters reported that about 600,000 Huida H200 chips are stranded in Hong Kong and waiting to be shipped to China, but Beijing only allows a small amount of import, and the prices of related servers have also increased due to export controls.
Reuters, citing two people familiar with the matter, reported that Nvidia (Huida also known as Nvidia) stores approximately 600,000 advanced artificial intelligence (AI) graphics processing units (GPUs) H200.hong kong Awaiting shipment to mainland China. Despite demand from Chinese tech companies, Beijing has not yet approved large-scale imports.
Reuters disclosed for the first time the scale of this batch of H200 inventory, which also highlights Beijing’s reluctance to rely more on American technology. On the other hand, Chinese companies still need Huida’s advanced computing capabilities to deal with rapidly growing AI demand in the world’s second-largest economy.
Three people familiar with the matter revealed that China has allowed some H200s to enter the country in recent months. One of them revealed that several major Chinese Internet companies have received about 10,000 H200 units in recent months. Three other people familiar with the matter said a small amount of chips were sent through intermediaries and indirect channels, but they did not disclose the quantity. Beijing has still not released large amounts of imports.
Although the H200 is not Huida’s latest AI processor, some functions are still unmatched by similar chips from China. Paired with Huida’s software, it is particularly suitable for training AI models.
The United States will implement export controls starting in 2022, restricting China’s access to Huida’s advanced chips and the equipment needed to manufacture these chips. With only a limited supply of wafers allowed, Chinese buyers turned to middlemen and indirect channels, driving up prices in the informal market.
By the end of October, the price of a server equipped with eight Huida H200 GPUs in the Chinese market had exceeded 6 million yuan ($900,000), nearly three times the price a year earlier, one of the people familiar with the matter said. Servers equipped with Huida’s latest generation Blackwell chips are subject to US export controls, and each unit costs more than 20 million yuan.
The H200 is caught in the middle of the trade and technology conflict between the United States and China. The United States originally banned the export of the H200 to China. Following US-China trade talks last year, the Trump administration allowed Huida to sell this chip to approved Chinese customers. Beijing, concerned about excessive reliance on American technology, has banned H200 imports.
Technology media The Information reported in July this year that Chinese authorities had told companies such as Alibaba, ByteDance and DeepSeek that they expected to be allowed to purchase small quantities of the H200 for training AI models. The report notes that the total number of approvals may be less than 200,000, and Beijing also expects companies to prefer using China’s domestic processors for AI inference, that is, using trained models to handle tasks.
Reuters reported last month that ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent had ordered more than 3 million Huida RTX PRO 5500 working GPUs, with a total value of more than US$35 billion. This graphics card is low performance and complies with US export regulations.
H200 adopts Hopper architecture and is mainly used for large-scale AI model training and inference in data centers. Although the RTX PRO 5500 uses the new Blackwell architecture, it is positioned as a workstation GPU and has a smaller memory capacity than the H200.
Summary FAQ
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Reuters quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that about 600,000 Huida H200 GPUs are stored in Hong Kong and waiting to be shipped to mainland China. This is the first time that such a large-scale inventory has been disclosed, and it also reflects the strong demand for advanced AI chips in the Chinese market.
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Sources said Beijing has not yet approved large-scale imports, and has allowed the entry of only a few H200s. Several major Chinese Internet companies have acquired nearly 10,000 units in recent months. Officials also expect companies to prioritize the use of Chinese domestic processors to reduce dependence on American technology.
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As US export controls exist alongside Chinese sanctions, buyers turn to middlemen and indirect channels for sourcing, driving up informal market prices. By the end of October, the asking price for eight H200-equipped servers had exceeded 6 million RMB, nearly three times higher than a year earlier.
