Source: Sharecast
According to a report from Reuters, citing people familiar with the matter, the US Commerce Department had approved companies including Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance and JD.com to purchase Nvidia’s H200 chips, the company’s second-most powerful AI processor.
Lenovo and Foxconn were also approved as distributors, the report said.
Lenovo confirmed to Reuters that it was “one of several companies approved to sell H200 in China as part of Nvidia's export license.”
Nvidia, Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, JD.com and Foxconn did not respond to requests for comment, while the US Commerce Department declined to comment.
Under the US licensing terms, approved customers can buy either directly from Nvidia or through authorised distributors, with each customer permitted to purchase up to 75,000 chips, Reuters said.
However, the report said sales had stalled after Chinese firms pulled back following guidance from Beijing.
The delay left Nvidia in a difficult position as chief executive Jensen Huang joined US president Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing for talks with Chinese president Xi Jinping.
Reuters said Huang was not initially listed in the White House delegation, but joined after an invitation from Trump, who picked him up in Alaska en route to the summit.
Huang told Chinese state broadcaster CCTV on Thursday that he hoped Trump and Xi would build on their good relationship during talks in Beijing to improve bilateral ties.
Before tighter US export controls, Nvidia held about 95% of China’s advanced chip market, while China accounted for 13% of its revenue.
Huang previously estimated that China’s AI market alone would be worth $50bn this year.
Despite US approval, Beijing was apparently reluctant to allow large purchases of Nvidia chips.
Reuters said Chinese authorities were under pressure to block or tightly vet the orders, reflecting concern that imports of advanced US processors could undermine China’s push to develop domestic AI chips.
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told a Senate hearing last month that “the Chinese central government has not let them, as of yet, buy the chips, because they're trying to keep their investment focused on their own domestic industry.”
Chinese companies including DeepSeek had increasingly highlighted their use of domestic chips, including products developed by Huawei.
Huang had warned that US export controls were eroding Nvidia’s position in China, saying the company’s share of AI accelerators in the market had effectively fallen to zero.
The potential sales also faced difficult conditions on the US side.
Rules issued in January required Chinese buyers to show that they had sufficient security procedures and would not use the chips for military purposes.
Nvidia would also need to certify sufficient inventory in the US.
Reuters said Trump negotiated an arrangement under which the US would receive 25% of revenue from the chip sales, requiring the chips to pass through US territory before being shipped to China because US law did not allow direct export fees.
The structure raised concerns in Beijing over possible tampering or hidden vulnerabilities, although Reuters sources reportedly described it mainly as a workaround to legal constraints.
China had also tightened scrutiny of foreign technology dependencies after the State Council issued new supply chain security regulations, prompting a government-wide effort to identify and reduce reliance on foreign suppliers in critical technology infrastructure.
Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.