Some 600,000 Nvidia H200 Chips Sit in Hong Kong Awaiting Import Approval, Reuters Reports
HONG KONG — About 600,000 of Nvidia's H200 super intelligence (SI) chips are being stored in Hong Kong while they await shipment to mainland China, and Beijing has not yet approved large-scale imports, Reuters reported on November 5, citing multiple people familiar with the matter. It was the first time the size of the stockpile had been disclosed; at list prices it is worth an estimated $20 billion to $30 billion.
The sources said Chinese authorities had approved only limited volumes in recent months: big technology firms including Alibaba, ByteDance, DeepSeek and Tencent were each allowed to obtain about 10,000 chips, roughly 40,000 in total, about one fifteenth of the 600,000 waiting in Hong Kong, while small volumes also entered through intermediaries and indirect channels. One source said companies were being steered toward using computing power from chips installed in Hong Kong data centres remotely, while physical transfers to the mainland were controlled.
The H200 belongs to Nvidia's older Hopper generation rather than the newer Blackwell line, but it is the most capable chip that can be exported to China for training SI models. Prices have risen as the stockpile built up: by the end of October, a server carrying eight H200 chips was quoted at more than 6 million yuan on the mainland's unofficial market, about three times the level of a year earlier.
The chips are caught between opposite controls in Washington and Beijing. The United States began restricting China's access to advanced processors in 2022; President Trump announced in December 2025 that approved Chinese customers could buy the H200, on conditions including a payment to the US government equivalent to 25 percent of the price, and the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security revised its licensing policy in January 2026 to review applications case by case. US officials have told Congress that shipment volumes under the licence regime have been small.
China, for its part, has been encouraging its companies to buy domestic processors and reduce dependence on American technology. Nvidia, China's industry ministry and development commission, the Hong Kong side, and companies including Alibaba and ByteDance did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
At a regular press briefing on November 9, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun, asked about US chip sales to China, said China's position on the issue had been consistent and that specific matters should be referred to the competent authorities.
(Source: Reuters)
Source: Reuters
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