ByteDance and Tencent have started receiving NVIDIA H200 artificial intelligence chips in China. The Financial Times reports that each company took in about 10,000 of the processors over the past few weeks once China cleared the chips for entry into the mainland. Those deliveries give two of China’s biggest technology firms more computing power for training advanced AI models and building AI agents that can compete with top U.S. systems.

The move follows months of uncertainty. Even after the United States eased its own export rules, it remained unclear whether China would let approved companies bring the H200 in.

H200 Performance and Export Limits

The H200 ranks as NVIDIA’s second-most powerful AI GPU. Only the newer Blackwell B200 sits above it. The B200 stays barred from export to China. The H200 still delivers significantly more AI computing capability than the H20, which had been among the strongest NVIDIA chips open to approved Chinese customers before this change.

U.S. officials first blocked H200 sales to China because of worries that the processors could aid development of Chinese military technologies. That stance shifted in December 2025. The United States then allowed NVIDIA to sell H200 chips to vetted Chinese companies.

Reuters later reported that China agreed to import several hundred thousand H200 processors. ByteDance and Tencent were two of the ten Chinese firms authorized to buy them. Each company could potentially purchase as many as 100,000 processors. The first reported shipments show those approvals are turning into actual hardware deliveries.

China has also told the companies to keep most of the H200 processors outside the mainland and route them to Hong Kong instead. That creates an odd situation. ByteDance and Tencent reportedly do not run data centers in Hong Kong at present.

Domestic Chip Goals and Foreign Hardware

These shipments matter because NVIDIA’s processors still outperform China’s home-grown options by a clear margin. Beijing continues to push technology companies toward locally designed chips. Huawei leads the domestic AI chip market right now. Industry experts quoted in the reports say NVIDIA stays well ahead on performance. Access to the H200 therefore gives Chinese firms extra computing capacity while local makers keep working on their own alternatives.

China’s desire to limit reliance on foreign processors helps explain the instruction to store most of the new NVIDIA hardware outside the mainland. At the same time, Beijing wants to cut dependence on U.S. technology and build up its own semiconductor industry.

What the Deliveries Mean Going Forward

For NVIDIA, the shipments reopen part of a large market while the company’s most advanced Blackwell chips remain off-limits. For Chinese AI companies, the H200 access could speed up model development. Computing power has become one of the biggest edges in the AI race.

More H200 deliveries may arrive soon. Other approved Chinese companies are expected to receive similarly sized batches. Whether these processors act as a short-term bridge or grow into a bigger piece of China’s AI infrastructure will depend on the next set of decisions from Washington and Beijing on export rules.