NVIDIA's older Hopper H200 chips are apparently blowing up in China after the US lifted restrictions on last-gen AI hardware while keeping the ban on newer Blackwell stuff. The company might spin up extra production capacity to handle orders without messing up American supply chains, but there's a catch where NVIDIA has to kick 25% of each sale back to the government.
Chinese firms were supposed to skip these cards and stick with domestic alternatives, but demand turned out way stronger than expected. Authorities are meeting to decide whether they'll actually approve sales, even though everyone seems to want the chips.
The H200 is still competitive enough for smaller AI operations that can't get their hands on Blackwell, and it has solid software support that makes it attractive despite being older tech.
Chinese firms were supposed to skip these cards and stick with domestic alternatives, but demand turned out way stronger than expected. Authorities are meeting to decide whether they'll actually approve sales, even though everyone seems to want the chips.
The H200 is still competitive enough for smaller AI operations that can't get their hands on Blackwell, and it has solid software support that makes it attractive despite being older tech.
