Nvidia prepares shipment of 82,000 AI GPUs to China as chip war lines blur — H200 shipments with 25% tax to begin as US loosens restrictions

Nvidia is set to ship 80,000 H200 AI chips to China, marking the first legal export of this level of silicon to the country since 2022. The shipments, scheduled for mid-February, will be drawn from existing inventory. The H200 outpaces previous variants and is now politically viable for export following a policy reversal by the Trump administration. Chinese authorities have yet to clear the shipments, but Nvidia expects approval given the interest and plans to open new H200 production capacity in 2026. The move poses a dilemma for China's chip ambitions as the H200's power surpasses domestically produced alternatives.