Jensen Huang, chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp., speaks during the 2026 CES event in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. Siemens and Nvidia announced an expansion of their strategic partnership to develop industrial and physical AI solutions to bring AI-driven innovation to industrial workflow. Photographer: Bridget Bennett/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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China has approved its first batch of Nvidia’s H200 artificial intelligence chips for import, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters, marking a shift in position as China seeks to balance its AI needs against spurring domestic development.
The approval covers several hundred thousand H200 chips and was granted during Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang’s visit to China this week, the sources said, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
The first batch of approvals has been allocated primarily to three major Chinese internet companies, with other enterprises now joining a queue for subsequent approvals, one of the sources said.
They declined to name the companies that received the initial clearances.
China’s industry and commerce ministries as well as Nvidia had not yet responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.