Nvidia gets nod to ship H200 chips to Chinese market

US-based semiconductor company Nvidia Corp said on Thursday that it had secured a license from Washington to ship a small number of its less-advanced H200 chips to customers in China.

However, the company also pointed out that, due to regulatory uncertainty, it would not include any data-center revenue from China in its first-quarter sales outlook.

"While small amounts of H200 products for China-based customers were approved by the US government, we have yet to generate any revenue, and we do not know whether any imports will be allowed into China," Colette Kress, Nvidia's executive vice-president and chief financial officer, said during a post-earnings call.

This came after Nvidia's revenue in China fell to $19.7 billion for the financial year ended Jan 25, down 21.2 percent from $25 billion a year earlier, according to its latest results announcement.

Kress also warned about rising competition in China, where domestic chipmakers have rushed to initial public offerings in recent months to meet soaring demand and position themselves as alternatives to Nvidia.

Chinese chip companies have the potential to reshape the structure of the global AI industry over the long term, Kress said.

A wave of IPOs is sweeping China's graphics processing unit, marking a critical phase in the nation's push for self-reliance in advanced computing power amid Washington's export restrictions.

On Jan 22, Shanghai-based Enflame Technology's application to list on Shanghai's Nasdaq-style STAR Market was accepted by the exchange. This paves the way for "The Four Dragons" — Enflame, Moore Threads, MetaX and Biren Technology — to complete their convergence in the capital markets.

It also follows the successful listing of another Shanghai GPU firm, Iluvatar CoreX, on the main board of the Hong Kong stock exchange on Jan 8. It became the second homegrown GPU company to go public in Hong Kong after Biren. Earlier, industry leaders Moore Threads and MetaX had already debuted on the STAR Market to significant investor interest.

Dong Peng, a senior economist and member of the assets committee of the China Enterprise Confederation, described this listing wave as "a collective breakthrough for domestic computing power during a strategic window of opportunity".

"Beneath the surface heat in capital markets lie two fundamental drivers," Dong said.

"First, the national demand for autonomy and controllability in AI and high-end manufacturing has created an unprecedented dual engine of policy and market support. Second, Washington's export restrictions on US leaders like Nvidia have opened a precious market window for domestic firms."

He emphasized that listing is not merely about fundraising, but a crucial step in establishing industry standards and ecosystem influence.

Zhou Di, a senior engineer and expert with the National Science and Technology Expert Database of the Ministry of Science and Technology, said China's AI computing market is likely to evolve toward a "dual-track, domestically led" new market landscape.

"Nvidia is likely to retain a share in the high-end AI training market, represented by the demand of hyper-scale internet companies and cutting-edge research institutes, by virtue of its technical advantages. Domestic GPUs, leveraging cost-performance ratios, customized services, policy support and security advantages, are positioned to dominate vertical sectors like government affairs, finance, industry and healthcare, as well as broader cost-performance-sensitive markets," Zhou said.

masi@chinadaily.com.cn