China reportedly approves DeepSeek to buy NVIDIA H200 AI chips with conditions

The drama around NVIDIA H200 AI chips doesn’t seem to stop anytime soon. What began as a tough U.S. export ban has slowly turned into a carefully managed reopening. Now, according to Reuters, China has green-lighted leading AI startup DeepSeek to purchase NVIDIA’s H200 chips, with conditions still being finalized.

China conditionally clears DeepSeek to buy NVIDIA H200 AI chips

The H200 sits at the center of today’s AI arms race. The chip, as you may know, is built for large-scale model training and inference. It also offers massive memory bandwidth through HBM3e, along with a massive efficiency boost.

For companies training increasingly large language models, fewer H200 chips can now handle workloads that previously required far larger clusters. That makes it one of the most sought-after AI accelerators on the market right now.

Earlier, access to chips like the NVIDIA H200 looked nearly impossible for Chinese firms. The U.S. initially blocked shipments altogether, citing national security concerns. However, the Trump administration loosened the export ban, but under strict terms. Each sale will reportedly come with a 25 percent cut, keeping volumes and exposure tightly controlled.

China’s response was cautious. While the country needs advanced AI hardware to keep pace globally, officials have also been wary of undermining local chipmakers. Relying too heavily on U.S. suppliers risks slowing domestic AI efforts in the long run. As a result, approvals have been selective rather than wide open.