Nearly 600,000 Nvidia H200 chips held in Hong Kong
Technology
Friday, November 6, 2026
- Updated Nov 6, 2026 10:50
About 600,000 Nvidia H200 chips destined for mainland China are being held in Hong Kong while they await import approval from the Chinese government, according to a Reuters report carried by Datacenter Dynamics.
Why it matters: Washington cleared H200 exports to China in January with a 25 percent tariff, so the binding constraint on the trade now sits in Beijing, and Chinese buyers are receiving only a small share of what they have ordered.
Data as of Datacenter Dynamics report of November 6, 2026, read in full in this run, relaying a Reuters report whose own sourcing is unnamed people familiar with the shipments. Single reporting chain in this run, so the item ships at grade C. Developing item.
About 600,000 Nvidia H200 chips destined for mainland China are being held in Hong Kong awaiting import approval from the Chinese government, Datacenter Dynamics reported, citing Reuters. Small quantities have moved through intermediaries and indirect routes, and sources cited in the report said several major Chinese internet companies have each obtained about 10,000 H200 chips over the past several months.
The United States reversed its earlier ban on H200 exports to China in December 2025 and formalized the approval in January 2026, with a 25 percent export tariff attached and a bar on exporting anything more powerful than the H200. Bloomberg has reported that Chinese AI developers expect to receive only about one percent of the chips they have ordered in the coming months, a shortfall the report attributes to Nvidia’s production capacity rather than to approvals alone.
Sources
- Almost 600,000 Nvidia H200s stranded in Hong Kong as Chinese gov't stalls on import approvals, report - Datacenter Dynamics, reporting Reuters - 2026-11-06