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(Image credit: Nvidia) The U.S. Department of Commerce is about to let Nvidia import its H200 AI GPUs into China, Semafor reports, citing a person with knowledge of the matter. If true, Nvidia would be able to ship much more capable GPUs to China, enhancing its positions and ensuring dominance of its CUDA software stack. The only question is whether China lets these AI accelerators in, as it previously blocked imports of the weaker H20.
The authorization reportedly only covers Nvidia's H200, a processor that originates from 2022, but features formidable performance and comes with 144 GB of HBM3 memory (an important spec for training large AI models), so it is years behind the leading edge Blackwell GPUs. When compared to the HGX H20 — specifically designed to meet U.S. export control regulations of 2023 — it still delivers a formidable performance advantage over H20. Although Huawei now offers accelerators and rack-scale systems that can compete against Nvidia's H200 and even GB200 NVL72 systems, many Chinese companies still prefer Nvidia hardware largely because of their reliance on the CUDA-based software stack.
Semafor claims that the decision also reflects an assessment inside the U.S. government that the earlier restrictions did not significantly hinder progress by Chines AI leaders like Alibaba, DeepSeek, or Huawei. These companies continued to release advanced AI models and fill hardware gaps with domestically engineered products, therefore blunting the intended effect of U.S. policy and spreading Chinese AI standards when it comes to hardware, software, and eventually ethics.
White House U-turn on Nvidia H200 AI accelerator exports down to Huawei's powerful new Ascend chips, report claims
Trump approves Nvidia H200 exports to China, with 25% fee attached
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/nvidia-reportedly-wins-h200-exports-to-china-us-department-of-commerce-set-to-ease-restrictions-for-full-hopper-ai-gpu#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.