Technology & Science
Beijing Greenlights First 400,000 Nvidia H200 AI Chips During Huang’s Lunar New Year Tour
On 28 Jan 2026, Chinese regulators ended a months-long import freeze by licensing over 400,000 Nvidia H200 GPUs—about US$10 billion worth—for Alibaba, ByteDance and Tencent, coinciding with CEO Jensen Huang’s visit.
Focusing Facts
- Initial approval covers >400,000 H200 chips for Alibaba, ByteDance, and Tencent, Reuters sources said 28 Jan 2026.
- U.S. export rules were loosened in Dec 2025 allowing H200 sales to China with a 25 % fee, but Beijing had withheld customs clearance until now.
- Jensen Huang toured Shanghai (24 Jan) and Beijing (25-26 Jan) before the approval, handing out red envelopes in wet markets and meeting officials.
Context
Great-power chip controls echo Cold War-era CoCom lists (1949-1994), when embargoed mainframes became bargaining chips in détente; today’s AI GPUs play the same role in Sino-American tech diplomacy. The decision reveals two converging structural forces: Beijing’s push for semiconductor self-reliance after the 2018-2020 ZTE/Huawei sanctions, and its immediate need for cutting-edge compute to train large models before domestic alternatives mature. By granting a quota while insisting on future domestic uptake, China is rehearsing the ‘import-substitution window’ strategy it used with high-speed rail in the 2000s—buy foreign tech, learn, replace. For Washington, the 25 % levy turns export control into revenue, blurring security and industrial policy much like the 1930s Neutrality Act “cash-and-carry” carve-outs. Over a century, the episode may matter less for the chips themselves—today’s top GPU is tomorrow’s scrap metal—than for the precedent: strategic technologies becoming tariffable, quota-managed commodities in a bifurcating world system. Whether this becomes the Sputnik-moment that accelerates a fully sovereign Chinese AI stack, or the start of a managed coexistence akin to U.S.-Soviet grain sales of the 1970s, will shape the next phase of global techno-economic order.
Perspectives
Chinese state-owned media
e.g., Global Times — Jensen Huang’s wet-market tour and city hops prove Nvidia is eager to stay in China, but lasting cooperation hinges on the firm meeting Beijing’s security rules while Washington keeps issuing "contradictory" export curbs. Frames events to underscore China’s leverage and paints the US as uncertain or hostile, mirroring official talking points that promote national self-reliance in semiconductors.
Western investor-oriented business outlets
e.g., 24/7 Wall St., Finimize — Beijing’s green-light for 400,000 H200 chips is a "walk-off home run" that opens a potential $50 billion market for Nvidia, even if license terms could slow near-term orders. Looks at the deal mainly through a stock-price lens, emphasizing upside for shareholders and largely setting aside the geopolitical and regulatory risks China may still impose.
Reuters-syndicated Asian mainstream outlets
e.g., Hindustan Times, The Times of India — China’s first H200 approvals signal a pragmatic thaw with Washington as Beijing tries to satisfy its tech giants’ AI needs while still nudging them toward home-grown chips. Heavy reliance on unnamed sources and wire reports can flatten nuance, and the narrative of a diplomatic "rapprochement" may underplay lingering strategic rivalry and domestic-chip protectionism.