H200 chip shipments to China have begun, U.S. official tells Congress

A senior U.S. trade official told Congress on Tuesday that shipments of Nvidia ↗ 2.78% H200 artificial intelligence chips to China have begun, with only a small number delivered so far, marking a milestone in a months-long saga over advanced semiconductor exports to Beijing.

ZTE Unit Among Latest Approved Buyers

Separately, documents reviewed by Reuters show that ZTE Kangxun Telecom, a unit of ZTE Corp, and server maker Maginfra are among the latest Chinese entities to receive U.S. government approval to purchase the advanced AI chips from Nvidia and AMD ↗ 11.04%. The approvals underscore a widening of the licensing program that initially covered roughly 10 Chinese firms including Alibaba ↗ 1.28%, Tencent, ByteDance, and JD.com ↗ 1.64%.reuters+4

The inclusion of ZTE drew immediate attention given the company's fraught history with U.S. national security authorities. ZTE was subjected to a crippling export ban in 2018 over sanctions violations before a deal brokered during the first Trump administration allowed it to resume operations.x

A Long Road From Approval to Delivery

The confirmation that chips have actually reached China represents a turning point after months of delays. As recently as May, Reuters reported that despite U.S. clearance for about 10 firms, not a single H200 had been delivered, with Chinese companies holding back after guidance from Beijing. Chinese officials had been reluctant to approve purchases, preferring to nurture domestic chip suppliers.reuters+2

That dynamic shifted in early July when reports indicated Beijing was preparing to let top AI firms buy a limited number of H200 chips — potentially fewer than 200,000 in total, less than half of what companies had requested.reuters

The Framework Behind the Sales

The export regime traces back to President Trump's December 2025 announcement that Nvidia could sell H200 chips to approved Chinese customers in exchange for a 25% surcharge on sales. The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security formalized the policy in January 2026, requiring case-by-case licensing, end-use certifications barring military applications, independent third-party testing, and a volume cap limiting China-bound shipments to 50% of U.S. deliveries.thomasnet+3

Each approved customer may purchase up to 75,000 chips under the licensing terms. The complex web of requirements from both Washington and Beijing had stalled transactions for months, with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick telling senators earlier this year that "the Chinese central government has not allowed them, as of yet, to purchase the chips".cnbc+1

The Tuesday disclosures now signal that the logjam is beginning to break — though the scale remains modest relative to Chinese demand and the roughly 890,000 chips that approved firms are collectively authorized to buy.