China’s largest technology firms are placing orders that could significantly strain the global supply of advanced Nvidia AI chips.
Chinese companies have ordered more than 2 million of Nvidia’s H200 artificial intelligence chips for delivery in 2026, far exceeding Nvidia’s current inventory of roughly 700,000 units, Reuters reports.
The demand has prompted Nvidia to approach its primary manufacturing partner, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., to ramp up production. Sources tell Reuters that Nvidia has asked TSMC to begin producing additional H200 chips, with work expected to start in the second quarter of 2026, although the final order volume has not yet been determined.
The H200 chip is part of Nvidia’s Hopper architecture and is manufactured using TSMC’s 4-nanometer process. While Nvidia has recently focused on scaling its newer Blackwell platform and preparing for the upcoming Rubin line, the size of Chinese demand is forcing the company to revisit production of its previous-generation chips.
Of Nvidia’s current inventory, about 100,000 units are GH200 Grace Hopper superchips, which combine Nvidia’s Grace CPU with the Hopper GPU, while the remainder are standalone H200 chips. Both variants are expected to be offered to Chinese customers.
Pricing details show Nvidia plans to sell H200 chips to Chinese clients at roughly $27,000 per chip, with an eight-chip module costing around 1.5 million yuan. That pricing is slightly higher than the now-unavailable H20 module but is viewed as attractive by buyers because the H200 delivers roughly six times the performance of the H20, a downgraded chip previously designed for China that was later blocked by Beijing.
The report notes that the H200 pricing represents about a 15% discount compared with grey-market alternatives, which currently sell for more than 1.75 million yuan per module.
Demand is being driven primarily by China’s largest internet companies. The bulk of the orders came from major firms that see the H200 as a substantial upgrade over chips currently available domestically.
Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump said that his administration would allow exports of the Nvidia H200 chips to customers under the condition that 25% of the proceeds would be paid to the US government. Chinese tech companies Alibaba and ByteDance have reached out to Nvidia seeking large H200 orders, but China’s government has yet to greenlight any deal.
Nvidia said it is actively managing its supply chain and noted that licensed H200 sales to authorized customers in China would not affect its ability to supply US customers. TSMC declined to comment, and China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
If approved and executed, the potential H200 expansion would mark one of the largest single-country AI chip demand surges on record, even as Nvidia accelerates development of its next-generation platforms. At $27,000 per chip, the Chinese demand could generate $54 billion in revenue for Nvidia.
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