“600,000 NVIDIA chips waiting in Hong Kong” ... “Chinese authorities put import approval on hold”

[Financial News] Hundreds of thousands of NVIDIA chips intended for mainland China are reportedly waiting in Hong Kong because Chinese authorities have put import approval on hold.
Reuters reported on the 5th (local time), citing multiple anonymous sources, that around 600,000 NVIDIA H200 chips were being stored in Hong Kong while awaiting shipment to China.
Reuters added that although Chinese companies need NVIDIA chips to meet surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI), the authorities' hold on approval reflects reluctance to increase technological dependence on the United States.
The sources said authorities had allowed some imports of H200 chips into China in recent months, and major technology companies had each secured around 10,000 units, but large-scale deliveries had not been approved.
NVIDIA's latest Blackwell chips are banned from export to China. Among the products that can be exported to China, the H200 is a high-performance chip that can be used to train AI models.
Relevant Chinese government agencies, Chinese companies including Alibaba, ByteDance, DeepSeek and Tencent, and NVIDIA did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment. 


[email protected] Lee Seok-woo, International Affairs Correspondent Reporter