The US government opened the door for Chinese companies to buy Nvidia’s coveted H200 AI chips. Beijing, it turns out, would rather they didn’t walk through it.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer confirmed that the Commerce Department has approved roughly 10 Chinese companies to purchase Nvidia’s H200 chips. The list includes some of China’s biggest tech names: Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, and JD.com. And yet, as of mid-May 2026, not a single shipment has been completed.
The approvals that nobody used
The Trump administration shifted its H200 review process from a presumption of denial to a case-by-case evaluation starting in late 2025 and early 2026. That was a meaningful policy pivot, one that suggested Washington was willing to let some commercial activity flow again.
Greer noted that whether these purchases ultimately happen is a “sovereign decision” for China. Reports indicate that Beijing is actively discouraging, if not outright blocking, its domestic tech companies from completing these transactions. The reason is straightforward: China wants to build its own semiconductor ecosystem, and buying American chips doesn’t exactly accelerate that goal.
