Nvidia has finally received Beijing’s approval for the sale of its second-most powerful artificial intelligence chips to China. The company is also preparing a version of the Groq AI chip that can be sold to the Chinese market, according to a Reuters report citing people with the matter.
This approval is long awaited, and it paves the way for Nvidia to resume sales of the H200 chips.
Chinese authorities have been reluctant to approve of imports, despite high demand from Chinese firms, and U.S. approval of exports. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said earlier that it had been licensed for “many customers in China” for the H200 and had received purchase orders from “many” companies, allowing it to resume production of the chip.
“Our supply chain is getting fired up,” Huang said at a press conference. The company had halted production last year of the chip because of increasing regulatory hurdles in the U.S. and China, according to a report at the time.
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Nvidia has been waiting for licenses from both the U.S. and from China for months. It has received some approvals from the U.S. and a source familiar with the matter reportedly mentioned that the company had now also received licenses for many customers in China from Beijing.
A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington said they were “not aware of the specifics,” and directed questions to “the competent authorities.” CNBC also reported on Tuesday that Huang told them the company now has clearance from both the U.S. and China.
A Chinese company source said that they did not know if the Chinese government had given final approval, but that Nvidia had told them that they could now place purchase orders.
Nvidia said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission late last month that the U.S. had granted a license in February that would allow “small amounts of H200 products to specific China-based customers.”
READ: US eases curbs, will allow certain Nvidia H200 chip segments into China (
Nvidia is also preparing a version of the Groq AI chip that can be sold to the Chinese market, according to Reuters. It plans to tap Groq chips for what is known as inference, where AI systems answer questions, write code or carry out tasks for users.
In the products Nvidia showed this week, the company plans to use its forthcoming Vera Rubin chips, which cannot be sold in China, in combination with the Groq chips.
Sources also told Reuters that the chips being prepared for China are not downgraded versions or made specifically for the Chinese market. The new variant however, can be adapted to work with other systems. The Groq chip is expected to be available in May.