Beijing To Approve Nvidia H200 Imports, Flagging Overreliance

“China's semiconductor industry must remain highly vigilant toward this, resolutely refuse to be deceived by superficial appearances and, even more importantly, must not waver in its confidence and determination to persist on the path of indigenous development in advanced process technologies and other key areas,” Wei said.

Although Wei is not a government official, he is widely regarded as one of China's most influential industry voices commenting on Nvidia's H200 imports. Beijing has not clearly indicated whether it will approve H200 imports since US President Donald Trump said on December 8 that Washington would allow Nvidia to supply the chips to approved Chinese customers.

Wei's remarks followed comments by Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang on January 6 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where he said demand from Chinese customers for the H200 remains strong. Huang has previously said the AI chip market in China could generate about US$50 billion annually for Nvidia in the coming years.

Media reports said that Nvidia has submitted export license applications to Washington and that final details of US government approval are still being completed.

Last November, the US Department of Commerce reportedly considered allowing the export of Nvidia's H200 chips to China. At the time, some Chinese commentators cautioned that such a move could act as“sugar-coated bullets,” offering short-term relief while potentially slowing the long-term development of China's domestic AI chip industry.

Following a phone call between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on November 24, Beijing began signaling more positively about H200 imports.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said on December 9 that China supports pursuing mutual benefit with the US through cooperation.

Some Chinese commentators have described this as a“two-track” approach, in which Chinese firms use H200 chips for high-end tasks such as AI model training while relying on domestic chips for AI inference – the term refers to a model answering people's questions.

Citing people familiar with the matter, Reuters reported on December 31 that Chinese technology companies have placed orders for more than 2 million H200 chips, to be delivered in 2026, far exceeding Nvidia's current inventory of about 700,000 units. The report said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) will begin to produce more in the second quarter of 2026.

A Shanghai-based columnist writing under the pen name Yan Ge says the core message of Wei Shaojun's comments is that, as long as China continues to develop and improve its own AI chips, it will achieve AI chip self-sufficiency.

“Foreign chips are welcome, but they must play by China's rules,” he says.“Chinese firms may buy foreign chips, but they must continue supporting domestic chipmakers and their research and development. Otherwise, when the next round of US export controls arrives, it will be too late to react.”

“Wei has repeatedly stressed in public speeches that around 90% of AI use cases do not actually need to use 7nm or 5nm chips – chips with a combination of 28nm processes, advanced packaging and chiplet design are good enough,” Yan says, adding that such an approach can cut power consumption by about 30% and costs by roughly 40%.

The Information reported on January 7 that Beijing has asked some Chinese technology firms to halt new orders for H200 chips and is expected to mandate purchases of domestically produced artificial intelligence chips, citing people familiar with the situation.