Nvidia shares edged about 1% higher after reports suggested that Beijing is preparing to ease restrictions on the company’s advanced AI chips.
According to The Information, Chinese regulators may soon allow major artificial intelligence companies in China to buy Nvidia’s powerful H200 chips.
Beijing Signals Major Policy Shift
The reported move marks an important shift in China’s approach to Nvidia hardware.
Chinese officials have reportedly told leading technology companies, including Alibaba, ByteDance, and DeepSeek, that they could receive conditional approval to purchase the chips.
This would offer some relief to China’s technology sector, which has been dealing with a serious shortage of advanced AI chips.
Nvidia H200 Supply Will Be Limited
The approval is not expected to be unlimited.
Reports suggest that Chinese companies may receive permission to buy fewer than 200,000 Nvidia H200 chips.
That would be less than half of the amount Chinese tech firms reportedly requested earlier this year.
Chips Reserved for AI Training
Beijing is also expected to place strict limits on how the chips can be used.
The Nvidia H200 chips would reportedly be reserved for training advanced artificial intelligence models.
This means companies may not be allowed to use them freely across all AI workloads.
China Pushes Domestic Chips for Inference
For everyday AI inference tasks, Beijing is expected to push companies toward domestic processors.
Inference refers to running AI models after they have already been trained.
Chinese regulators reportedly want firms to prioritize local chipmakers, including Huawei, for these tasks.
Nvidia Gets a Strategic Boost in China
Even with restrictions, the policy shift could be a major win for Nvidia.
The company’s China business had been under heavy pressure because of regulatory tensions and tight controls on advanced chip sales.
A limited reopening of the Chinese market could help Nvidia regain momentum in one of the world’s most important AI markets.
