Nvidia Faces Supply Crunch as Chinese Firms Rush for H200 Chips
Nvidia's H200 AI chips have become the hottest commodity in China's tech sector after U.S. export rules allowed their sale with a 25% tariff. Alibaba and ByteDance are among firms scrambling to secure shipments, though Beijing has yet to grant import approvals.
The chipmaker is caught between surging demand and constrained supply. While Nvidia assures U.S. customers their orders won't be affected, production prioritizes next-gen Blackwell and Rubin architectures over the H200—a situation exacerbated by TSMC's 4nm process bottlenecks.
Chinese regulators convened emergency meetings this week to deliberate on the chips' clearance. The delay compounds pressure on domestic AI developers already facing shortages of advanced semiconductors.