China customs authorities say Nvidia’s H200 chips are not permitted – report

Well, the US may have tried to ease the approval criteria for Nvidia H200 chip exports to China. But evidently, Beijing looks to be having none of that. Quite literally.

The latest report here states that China customs authorities have told customs agents this week that Nvidia’s H200 artificial intelligence (AI) chips are not permitted to enter the country. One of the sources claimed that:

“The wording from the officials is so severe that it is basically a ban for now, though this might change in the future should things evolve.”

As a reminder, the H200 AI chip is quite the contentious issue involving US-China relations at this point in time as it it Nvidia’s second-most powerful AI chip.

The report goes on to say that Chinese government officials have also called tech firms to a meeting where they were explicitly instructed not to purchase the H200 chips unless necessary.

Another source added that so far, exemptions are only being discussed for R&D purposes and universities. Otherwise, this looks to be a blanket ban unless there are special circumstances involved.

More to come..

This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.