China plans to permit purchases of Nvidia’s H200 chips “as soon as this quarter,” per Bloomberg

Nvidia’s $54 billion opportunity to sell H200 AI chips to the world’s second-largest economy is reportedly close to getting the thumbs-up from Chinese officials.

Bloomberg reports that China is “preparing to allow local companies to buy the component from Nvidia for select commercial use,” with this step coming “as soon as this quarter.”

Shares are up marginally in premarket trading.

The H200 is the top-performing processor from Nvidia’s Hopper generation, which preceded Blackwell. Earlier this week, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced that Vera Rubin chips, the successor to Blackwell, are now in full production. While these H200s are getting lapped by newer generations, they’re still roughly 6x more powerful than H20 chips. Those are nerfed versions of Hopper chips that were previously the top AI offering Nvidia was allowed to sell into China, before US President Donald Trump announced back in December that Nvidia would be permitted to make H200 sales.

Reuters previously indicated that Nvidia has already received more than 2 million orders for H200 chips for 2026, plans to price these at about $27,000 apiece, and will have initial shipments there before the Lunar New Year holiday (February 17).

Separately, the outlet reports that the chip designer is demanding full payment up front from Chinese customers, along with no ability to modify or cancel orders, due to concerns about potential shifts in Beijing’s willingness to allow these shipments.