Nvidia rebuts claim that it’s requiring full upfront payment from Chinese buyers of its H200 AI chips

An Nvidia spokesperson offered a rebuttal to Reuters on Tuesday, saying the chip designer does not require full payment for H200 chips up front, as the outlet had claimed in a January 8 report.

President Trump had said that Nvidia could ship H200s, their best chip from the Hopper generation, to China on December 8. Chinese regulators, however, would need to allow their companies to import these chips, at a time when the nation’s leadership is keenly interested in bolstering domestic alternatives.

Concerns over whether Chinese regulators would permit imports fueled Nvidia’s alleged payment strategy, per Reuters. But Nvidia has now told the outlet that it “would never require customers to pay for products they do not receive.”

Of note: the chip designer isn’t going on the record to contradict any of Reuters’ other recent reporting surrounding its H200 chips, which includes:

• Demand for H200s is extremely hot, with Chinese companies having already placed orders for 2 million in 2026

• Nvidia is planning on selling these chips at around $27,000 apiece

  • Put those two together, and that’s a $54 billion revenue opportunity

• Nvidia plans to begin sending its H200 GPUs (which it holds in inventory) to China by mid-February

• The world’s most valuable company has asked TSMC to boost production of these chips

Last week, Bloomberg reported that China plans to allow purchases of H200s “as soon as this quarter.”