Nvidia's First Batch of H200 Chips Sold to China, Accounting for Less Than 1% of Data Center Revenue
Nashnova编辑部
Nvidia sold a small batch of H200 chips to Chinese buyers this quarter, its first AI-chip sale to China since early 2025, but the revenue was less than 1% of data-center sales — and actual shipments fell short of the U.S.-approved cap, signaling that Beijing's reluctance, not Washington's restrictions, is the real bottleneck.
How much did Nvidia actually sell?
Nvidia delivered a small number of H200 chips to China in the quarter ending July 26, but the revenue came in at less than 1% of data-center quarterly sales — and actual shipments were below the ceiling set by the U.S. license.
This means → the constraint is not the export license. Beijing discouraged Chinese tech firms from buying H200s, so Nvidia couldn't use up its approved quota.
The unsold inventory hit the books: Nvidia recorded a combined $400 million inventory write-down on H200 stock over the past two quarters.
What does Nvidia's overall China revenue look like?
Including H200, Nvidia's total China revenue this quarter reached $7.88 billion, roughly double the year-ago figure.
In plain terms = that doubling was carried almost entirely by gaming hardware and other non-AI product lines. H200 AI-chip revenue was negligible.
Nvidia did not disclose H200 unit volumes or revenue for China separately — a deliberate opacity on a politically sensitive line item.
How did Nvidia get the license — and why didn't it help?
The U.S. government issued a license in January allowing Nvidia to sell H200 chips to approved Chinese buyers, on condition that Nvidia pay a 25% fee to the U.S. Treasury.
CEO Jensen Huang joined President Trump on a visit to Beijing, but the trip failed to produce a sales breakthrough. Trump later said Xi Jinping had not approved the purchases because he wanted to back China's domestic chip industry.
This means → the obstacle is not the export-control regime itself but a Chinese industrial-policy choice — Beijing would rather support Huawei than let its companies buy Nvidia chips at scale.
Is the H200 still competitive in China?
The H200 is now two generations behind Nvidia's latest Rubin processors, yet it remains competitive in the Chinese market.
Its main rival is chips co-produced by Huawei and SMIC — both companies are under U.S. export controls and cannot access lithography equipment and other critical tools.
In plain terms = China's homegrown alternatives are hobbled by sanctions, so even a two-generation-old Nvidia chip still counts as a strong contender on the mainland.
What comes next?
Nvidia has kept its China data-center and AI-chip revenue outlook at zero — the company itself does not expect a near-term breakthrough.
Xi Jinping is scheduled to visit Washington next month. Whether H200 sales come up in the leaders' talks will be the key signal for whether Nvidia's China AI business can meaningfully restart.
This means → the decision is now entirely out of Nvidia's hands — it has become a diplomatic issue.
市场有风险，内容仅供研究参考，不构成投资建议。