As the U.S. government has allowed exports of Nvidia's artificial intelligence (AI) chip "H200" to China, China is said to be planning to restrict access by its own corporations.
The Financial Times (FT) reported on the 9th (local time) that "the Chinese government is discussing ways to regulate the use of the H200 chip that President Donald Trump recently allowed to be exported." It is said to be likely to require an approval process for Chinese corporations that request to purchase Nvidia products, such as making them explain why they are not using domestic products. There is also a possibility that measures such as banning H200 purchases by government-affiliated agencies will be introduced.
Previously, China also restricted the use of the "H20," which Nvidia produced with downgraded performance for export to China. The Chinese government said H20's performance is not significantly superior to products developed by domestic corporations such as Huawei, and it encouraged the use of Chinese products.
The H200, which President Trump recently allowed to be exported, outperforms the H100 that Nvidia released in late 2023. The H200 is the predecessor to the latest Blackwell series, but it is regarded as optimized for training large-scale AI models and Generative AI.
Industry watchers expected solid demand for the H200 from Chinese IT giants such as Alibaba, ByteDance Ltd., and Tencent. Chinese IT corporations are using domestic products due to government regulations, but they have relied on Nvidia products, which offer better performance and easier maintenance and management.
President Trump, referring to the approval of H200 exports to China, said it "will support American jobs, strengthen American manufacturing, and help American taxpayers." However, if the Chinese government introduces regulations on the H200, the AI competition between the two countries is expected to unfold in a direction different from Trump's expectations.