China gives OK for ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent to buy Nvidia's H200 chips - reports

(Sharecast News) - China has reportedly given the green light to three of its largest tech companies to buy Nvidia's H200 artificial intelligence chips, marking a shift in position as Beijing seeks to balance its AI needs against spurring domestic development. Reuters cited people familiar with the matter as saying that ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent have been approved to purchase more than 400,000 H200 chips in total, with other firms now joining a queue for subsequent approvals.

The Chinese government is only granting approvals with conditions and the sources told Reuters they were still being decided upon. One said the licenses were too restrictive and customers were not yet converting the approvals to purchase orders.

It was understood that regulatory nods were granted during Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang's visit to China this week.

At 1300 GMT, Nvidia shares were up 2% in pre-market trade at $192.37.