--- title: China Leaves 600,000 Nvidia AI Chips Waiting in Hong Kong as Beijing Holds Back Import Approval description: About 600,000 Nvidia H200 AI chips sit in Hong Kong as Beijing withholds large-scale import approval. Why China is limiting US chips and what an H200 costs. author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-11-06T11:30:00.048Z updated: 2026-11-06T11:30:00.058Z canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/nvidia-h200-chips-hong-kong-china image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/pexels-3665442.webp categories: Science & Tech, Artificial Intelligence content_type: News region: China, Hong Kong publication: Sovereign Magazine about: - type: Organization name: Nvidia --- About 600,000 of Nvidia's H200 artificial intelligence chips are sitting in Hong Kong waiting to be shipped to mainland China, Reuters reported on Thursday 5th November, citing two people familiar with the matter. Beijing has not approved large-scale imports, even though Chinese technology companies need the computing power to keep up with demand for AI. The size of the stockpile had not been reported before. China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and its National Development and Reform Commission did not respond to Reuters, and neither did Nvidia, Alibaba, ByteDance, DeepSeek or Tencent. ## Why China Is Holding Back Nvidia Chip Imports The stockpile reflects Beijing's reluctance to deepen its reliance on American technology, according to Reuters. Some chips have been let through. Several major Chinese internet companies have each received about 10,000 H200s in recent months, one person told Reuters, and small quantities have arrived through intermediaries and indirect routes. In July, the technology publication The Information reported that Chinese officials had told Alibaba, ByteDance and DeepSeek they could buy limited quantities of H200s for training AI models. Total approvals could come to fewer than 200,000 chips, it reported, and the companies were told to favour Chinese processors for inference, the work of running AI models once they are trained. China's approach mirrors the logic behind export controls in the opposite direction. Washington restricts which chips leave the United States, and Beijing now restricts which American chips come in, so that demand from its own companies goes to Chinese chipmakers wherever possible. ## How US Export Rules on Nvidia Chips Changed US export controls have limited China's access to advanced Nvidia chips, and to the equipment needed to make them, since 2022. The United States barred H200 exports to China until President Donald Trump's administration gave Nvidia permission last year to sell the chip to approved Chinese customers, a change that followed trade talks between the two countries. In August, Reuters reported that the first H200s had begun reaching mainland China in small shipments. Nvidia's newer Blackwell chips remain under US export controls. ## Nvidia Chip Prices in China The H200 is not Nvidia's newest processor, but it does things Chinese alternatives cannot yet match, especially when paired with Nvidia's software, which makes it valuable for training AI models. With authorised supply limited, Chinese buyers have turned to intermediaries, and prices on the unofficial market have climbed. By the end of October, a server with eight H200 cards was on offer in mainland China for more than 6 million yuan, about $900,000, roughly three times its price a year earlier, according to one person Reuters spoke to. Servers built on Blackwell chips were offered for more than 20 million yuan each. Chinese companies are also buying in bulk where they can. Reuters reported last month that ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent had ordered more than 3 million of Nvidia's RTX Pro 5500 graphics cards, a less powerful product that complies with US export rules, with a combined sticker price of more than $35 billion. ## Nvidia Shares and the AI Chip Sell-Off The report landed on a difficult day for chipmakers. By mid-morning in New York on Thursday, Nvidia shares were down 6.3%, a day after falling 3.2%, and Advanced Micro Devices had dropped 13.1%, the Associated Press reported. South Korea's Kospi index, heavy with chip stocks, fell 5.3%. Sovereign looked at [whether the AI bubble is bursting](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/is-the-ai-bubble-bursting-october-2026) after Intel's worst day since 1974. ## What China's Chip Choice Means for Europe Europe faces its own version of the same choice. If you build or buy AI services in Europe, almost all of the advanced chips behind them are designed in the United States. The EU's Chips Act 2.0, now before the European Parliament and member states, aims to widen Europe's share of the chip industry from design to memory, and you can follow its progress in our report on [Europe's tech sovereignty plan five months on](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/eu-tech-sovereignty-five-months-on). China's decision to leave chips it needs waiting at the border shows how far a government will go to protect the market for its own chipmakers. ## FAQ **Q: How much does an Nvidia H200 cost?** Nvidia does not publish a list price for the H200, and prices depend on supply, volume and the market. In mainland China, where supply is restricted, a server with eight H200 cards was on offer for more than 6 million yuan, about $900,000, at the end of October 2026, according to Reuters. **Q: Has China ever bought Nvidia chips?** Yes. Chinese companies have bought Nvidia chips for many years, and China was one of Nvidia's largest markets before US export controls from 2022 restricted sales of its most advanced AI processors. Since then, Chinese buyers have bought lower-powered products designed to comply with US rules, and the United States later allowed sales of the H200 to approved customers. **Q: Why is the H200 so expensive?** The H200 is a data-centre processor built to train and run large AI models, with 141 gigabytes of fast high-bandwidth memory. Demand from technology companies building AI systems has outstripped supply for several years, and in markets where sales are restricted, intermediaries add a further premium.