US official says Nvidia H200 shipments to China remain limited

A senior U.S. Commerce Department official told lawmakers Tuesday that only a limited number of Nvidia H200 artificial intelligence chips have been shipped to China and Hong Kong under recently issued export licenses. The disclosure suggests that sales of the chips have resumed in small volume, a development that could add revenue for Nvidia after the company had excluded China AI chip sales from its forecasts, according to CNBC.

Jeffery Kessler, under secretary of commerce for industry and security, said at a congressional hearing that shipments made under licenses for H200s and comparable chips had been minimal. “The bottom line is very few shipments against licenses for H200s and equivalents have taken place. It’s a very small quantity of chips,” Kessler said.

Nvidia declined to comment, CNBC reported.

Licensing sits at the center of the China channel

Nvidia has sought access to China, one of the largest markets for AI development, while U.S. export controls have restricted sales of many advanced chips to Chinese customers. The controls reflect Washington’s effort to limit Beijing’s access to computing hardware that could be used in sensitive military or strategic applications.

The H200 is part of Nvidia’s Hopper generation, an older product line than the Blackwell chips now used by U.S. companies, according to CNBC. Even so, access to H200 processors would matter for Chinese AI developers because Nvidia’s chips remain central to training large models. CNBC reported that, without Nvidia chips, Chinese companies would need to rely more heavily on domestic alternatives that are considered weaker for AI training.

The license system allows the U.S. government to review specific buyers and transactions rather than apply a single approval to all sales. Kessler told lawmakers that the government evaluates companies seeking H200 chips individually. Applicants must satisfy national security conditions and accept inspections intended to verify compliance, he said.

“There are cases where we deny the license applications we receive,” Kessler said.

Trump approval came with a proposed government cut

President Donald Trump said in December that the U.S. government would allow sales of Nvidia’s H200 chip to China in return for a 25% share, CNBC reported. Licenses for the chips were issued earlier this year, according to the report.

Some officials in the administration have said the chips may have military applications, CNBC reported. That concern has kept Nvidia at the center of the technology dispute between Washington and Beijing, where export restrictions have become a policy tool for controlling access to advanced computing capacity.

The eventual scale of shipments remains uncertain. Kessler’s testimony confirmed that some movement has taken place under the licensing regime, but he described the volumes as very small. CNBC also reported that it remains unclear whether Chinese authorities will permit the import of large quantities of the H200 chips.

Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang said on CNBC in May that he had told investors to “expect nothing” from China sales, reflecting the company’s stance of leaving potential Chinese AI chip revenue out of its projections since last year.

This story draws on original reporting from CNBC.