China conditionally approves DeepSeek to buy Nvidia H200 chips

China has granted its leading AI startup DeepSeek conditional approval to purchase Nvidia's H200 artificial intelligence chips, though the final regulatory terms remain under development, according to sources familiar with the matter cited by Reuters.

The approval places DeepSeek alongside three major Chinese technology companies—ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent—that were authorized earlier this week to collectively procure more than 400,000 H200 chips. China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and Ministry of Commerce have approved all four companies, but the specific conditions are being finalized by the National Development and Reform Commission, the state planning agency overseeing industrial policy.

Nvidia awaits orders as licensing process continues
Despite the reported approvals, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told reporters in Taipei on Thursday that his company has not received official notification or purchase orders from China. Huang said he believes Beijing is still working through the licensing process and expressed hope for a "favourable decision."

"The H200, the actual licence for H200 is being finalised," Huang told reporters at Taipei's Songshan airport. "I'm hoping that also the Chinese government would allow Nvidia to sell the H200".​

The H200 is Nvidia's second-most powerful AI chip, roughly six times more capable than the H20 chip that was previously the most advanced processor approved for sale to China. The United States formally cleared the H200 for export to China on January 15, with conditions including shipment caps at 50% of domestic U.S. sales and a 25% tariff. However, Chinese authorities retain final authority over imports.

U.S. Lawmakers raise military concerns
Any DeepSeek purchase of H200 chips could face scrutiny from Washington. Representative John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on China, sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Wednesday alleging that Nvidia provided extensive technical support that helped DeepSeek develop AI models later used by China's People's Liberation Army.

"Documents produced to the Committee reveal NVIDIA provided extensive technical support that enabled DeepSeek—now integrated into People's Liberation Army systems and a demonstrated cyber security risk—to achieve frontier AI capabilities," Moolenaar wrote.​

Nvidia responded that China "possesses an ample supply of domestic chips for all its military needs" and that it would be "unreasonable for the Chinese military to rely on American technology".​

DeepSeek made waves in the global technology sector in January 2025 when it released AI models that cost a fraction of those developed by U.S. rivals like OpenAI, triggering a $600 billion single-day drop in Nvidia's market value. The startup is expected to launch its next-generation V4 model in mid-February, featuring enhanced coding capabilities that internal tests suggest could rival or surpass closed-source models from Anthropic and OpenAI.

Source: Perplexity