Trump’s nod sparks ByteDance, Alibaba rush for Nvidia H200 chips

ByteDance and Alibaba have expressed the desire to order advanced Nvidia H200 AI chips after US President Donald Trump gave a nod about exporting chips to China.

According to Reuters, these Chinese companies are interested in purchasing Nvidia’s second most powerful chip to boost its AI capabilities.

However, Nvidia has not commented on the supply decision as the sources are seeking clarity from Nvidia regarding chip orders.

Before the Trump administration's approval, only H20 chips were legally allowed to be exported to China as the most advanced AI semiconductor. Compared to H20, H200 is six times more powerful chip.

The Chinese government has yet to comment on Trump’s announcement on H200. As per sources privy to the matter, the Chinese government held a meeting of tech giants, including Alibaba, ByteDance, and Tencent Holdings and asked them to analyze their demands for H200 chips.

Despite the widespread ban, H200 chips are highly and matchlessly valuable in training AI models. The lifting of the ban will be a double-edged sword for Chinese authorities.

On one hand, they may need to review purchase requests and on the other hand, they also want to encourage the sales of domestic AI chips manufactured in China.

"The training of leading Chinese AI models still relies on Nvidia cards," said Zhang Yuchun, a general manager at Chinese cloud service provider SuperCloud's solution and ecology units.

"I expect the leading Chinese tech companies to buy a lot although in a low key manner," he added.