Nvidia is now allowed to sell its advanced chips to Chinese companies. However, China’s customs authorities claim the opposite.
The latest news on the matter has revealed that Chinese government officials have spoken with the country’s technology companies, directing them not to purchase the chips unless necessary.
According to a source cited by Reuters, the request sounded more like a ban, which may be lifted once the situation changes.
The Nvidia chip in question is H200, the company’s second most powerful AI chip, which offers nearly double the capacity of Nvidia’s H100 chip.
The starting price of the H200 chip is $27,000 for a single unit.
While it's not yet clear why China wants to ban access to Nvidia chips in the country, speculation suggests that the government may want its own chip companies to have an opportunity, or it may be limited due to US restrictions on exports of high-end chips to China, which have been in place since 2022.
It was previously reported that the US allowed the chips to be exported to China, subject to certain conditions. One such condition is that the US should not be in short supply of processors in the country, and that shipments to China will not impact manufacturing for customers in the US.
It’s not yet known whether the new restrictions apply to existing Nvidia chip orders or only to new ones.
Before the recent suspension of H200 chip purchases, China informed some tech companies that it would approve purchases if the processors were used for research and development purposes in universities.
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