SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 5 — The U.S. is prepared to let China’s ByteDance buy Nvidia’s H200 artificial‑intelligence chips, but the sale is stalled as Washington and Nvidia remain at odds over license conditions (Reuters report).
U.S. officials signaled about two weeks ago that a license could be approved, but Nvidia has not accepted the current Know‑Your‑Customer requirements designed to keep the chips away from China’s military, The Hindu reported, citing the Reuters account.
Conditions and compliance demands
Those conditions would require applicants to certify rigorous customer screening, prevent unauthorized remote access and disclose remote users tied to sanctioned countries, while a third‑party lab must test shipments before export, according to EconoTimes’ summary of the proposal.
Nvidia says it is an intermediary between the government and buyers and warns that if compliance terms are not commercially workable, demand could shift toward non‑U.S. alternatives, Reuters reported.
On the China side, regulators have already given preliminary approvals for ByteDance, Tencent, Alibaba and AI startup DeepSeek to import H200 chips, though Beijing’s own conditions are still being finalized, according to The Hindu.
Geopolitics drives timing
MarketScreener’s Reuters write‑through noted the decision has drawn criticism from U.S. hawks who argue the policy could strengthen China’s military capabilities, underscoring how the chip dispute sits inside the broader U.S.‑China tech rivalry.
The license terms are still moving through an interagency review that includes the State, Defense and Energy departments, Reuters reported, and Nvidia can propose changes before conditions are finalized.
Despite the friction, some shipments could reach China ahead of a planned April meeting between President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping, EconoTimes reported.
Finimize said the episode highlights how compliance is becoming a core feature of AI‑chip sales: even “second‑best” hardware now faces paperwork‑heavy hurdles that can slow deals and fragment supply chains.
Image Attribution ▾
Image: ‘Nvidia HQ’ by Kevin McCarthy (2005), CC BY 2.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nvidia_HQ.jpg. Modifications: resized and cropped to 1920×1080.
