Small batches of Nvidia's H200 AI processors have been allowed into mainland China, with ByteDance and Tencent each receiving about 10,000 chips in recent weeks, according to a Financial Times report on August 18, 2026 — a limited easing of Beijing's chip curbs that still comes with an unusual condition: keep most of the hardware in Hong Kong.
ByteDance and Tencent get first tranche
The U.S. has cleared several Chinese customers to purchase up to 100,000 H200 chips each, but Beijing wants them to hold the hardware outside mainland China to support the growth of domestic chipmakers, particularly Huawei, the FT reported. A few other Chinese technology firms could soon receive similar shipments, and last week Nvidia partners including Lenovo told Chinese customers they could resume ordering H200-based AI servers subject to approval from China's National Development and Reform Commission.
Hong Kong workaround has its limits
Chinese regulators have told companies they can ship the H200 processors to Hong Kong, which operates outside mainland China's customs border, and use them there. But Hong Kong lacks enough data-center capacity to accommodate the volumes Chinese tech firms could potentially receive, and power constraints are also expected to limit how quickly that capacity can expand — meaning the immediate practical impact on Chinese AI compute buildouts may be modest.
Older silicon, high demand
H200 chips are one generation behind Nvidia's Blackwell family, which Chinese customers cannot purchase under U.S. export controls. Even so, demand for H200 access remains intense because China has limited alternative access to the most advanced chipmaking equipment; Nvidia officially began case-by-case H200 shipments to China in July under Trump-administration approvals that also cleared AMD and other suppliers for certain customers.
Nvidia stock ticks up on the report
Nvidia's stock edged up in pre-market trading after the FT report, and analysts said the shipments underscore that Beijing's chip diplomacy is designed to buy time for domestic silicon rather than to open the market. The move also arrives as Samsung, TSMC and other AI supply-chain players push through custom-silicon deals for hyperscalers.
Reporting based on coverage from the Financial Times, Reuters, Benzinga and Business Recorder.