After years of tightening export restrictions that effectively wiped out Nvidia’s presence in the Chinese market, Washington has approved sales of the company’s H200 AI chips to approximately ten Chinese firms. The list includes some of the biggest names in Chinese tech: Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, and JD.com.

Nvidia shares rose around 1% on the news.

From near-zero market share to cautious reentry

Export controls introduced in 2022, and escalated under both the Biden and Trump administrations, pushed Nvidia’s market share in China from roughly 95% to nearly zero. The approvals granted by mid-May 2026 represent a significant reversal of that trajectory, building on conditional clearances the Trump administration began issuing in December 2025. For Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who has repeatedly flagged strong demand for advanced chips inside China, this is the regulatory green light the company has been waiting for.

The approvals come with conditions worth noting. One of them, a 25% revenue share to the US government, makes this less of a free pass and more of a heavily tolled highway.

Initial planning had targeted shipment volumes between 5,000 and 82,000 units, with a goal of reaching those figures before mid-February 2026. That timeline came and went without a single unit crossing the border. Customs friction on the Chinese side, ongoing regulatory scrutiny, and Chinese government guidance nudging domestic buyers toward homegrown alternatives all contributed to the delay.

Why actual shipments haven’t happened yet

As of mid-May 2026, zero H200 chips had shipped to China despite the approvals being in place. Chinese customs policy has been one concrete obstacle. Beyond logistics, Beijing has been actively encouraging its major tech companies to favor domestic chip suppliers, part of a broader push for self-sufficiency in AI hardware that has accelerated in direct response to US export controls.