ByteDance and Tencent have reportedly begun receiving shipments of NVIDIA’s H200 artificial intelligence chips in China, marking a significant development in the technology rivalry between Beijing and Washington.
According to the Financial Times, both companies have received around 10,000 H200 processors each over the past few weeks after China allowed the chips to enter the mainland. The shipments could give two of China’s largest technology companies additional computing power to train advanced AI models and develop AI agents capable of competing with leading U.S. systems.
The development comes after months of uncertainty surrounding whether China would actually allow approved companies to import the H200, despite the U.S. government loosening its own export restrictions.
NVIDIA’s H200 finally reaches Chinese tech giants
The H200 is NVIDIA’s second-most powerful AI GPU, sitting behind the newer Blackwell B200. While the B200 remains restricted from export to China, the H200 offers significantly more AI computing capability than the H20, which was previously among the most powerful NVIDIA chips available to approved Chinese customers.
The U.S. originally restricted H200 sales to China over concerns that advanced NVIDIA processors could contribute to the development of China’s military technologies. The policy changed in December 2025, when the U.S. allowed NVIDIA to sell H200 chips to vetted Chinese companies.
Reuters later reported that China had agreed to import several hundred thousand H200 processors. ByteDance and Tencent were among 10 Chinese companies reportedly authorized to purchase the chips, with each company potentially able to acquire as many as 100,000 processors.
The first reported shipments now suggest those approvals are translating into actual hardware deliveries. China has reportedly asked companies to keep most of their H200 processors outside mainland China and ship them to Hong Kong instead. That creates an unusual situation, since ByteDance and Tencent reportedly do not currently operate data centers there.
China still wants its own AI chips
The shipments are important because NVIDIA’s hardware remains considerably more capable than China’s domestic alternatives, even as Beijing aggressively pushes technology companies toward locally developed processors.
Huawei currently leads China’s domestic AI chip market, but industry experts cited in the reports say NVIDIA remains significantly ahead in performance. Access to H200 processors could therefore provide Chinese companies with additional computing capacity while domestic chipmakers continue developing alternatives.
China’s reluctance to rely heavily on foreign processors also explains why the government reportedly wants companies to keep much of the newly approved NVIDIA hardware outside the mainland. Beijing is simultaneously trying to reduce its dependence on U.S. technology and strengthen its own semiconductor industry.
For NVIDIA, the development reopens part of an enormous market while keeping the company’s most advanced Blackwell hardware off-limits. For Chinese AI companies, H200 access could accelerate model development at a time when computing power has become one of the biggest advantages in the AI race.
More H200 shipments could follow, with other approved Chinese companies reportedly expected to receive similarly sized deliveries. Whether those processors remain a temporary bridge or become a larger part of China’s AI infrastructure will depend on how Washington and Beijing handle the next round of export restrictions.
