The control directive from Chinese customs was officially issued this week, clearly informing customs clearance personnel not to allow the entry of Nvidia H200 artificial intelligence chips. More importantly, Chinese government officials urgently convened a meeting of domestic technology companies on Tuesday, January 13th, conveying more specific control requirements: domestic companies are not allowed to purchase H200 chips unless there are special necessary circumstances.
The core target of this control is the NVIDIA H200 chip, which can be regarded as the "focus product" of the Sino US technology game. As Nvidia's next top tier artificial intelligence chip, H200 is equipped with advanced HBM3e memory, with a video memory bandwidth of up to 4.8TB/s. Its AI inference performance is six times higher than the previous "special edition" H20 for the Chinese market, and it can directly support the training and inference tasks of trillion parameter large models. It is currently one of the core hardware in the global high-end AI computing field. Previously, the chip was included in the export control list due to concerns from the US government about "enhancing China's technological and military advantages". The US government's release and China's control response have put this chip at the forefront of technology competition between China and the United States.
It is worth noting that China's control measures have almost synchronized with the release policy of the United States, forming a clear policy hedge. On January 13th local time, the Federal Register of the United States officially finalized new regulations, adjusting the regulatory mode for Nvidia H200 chip exports to China from "presumed refusal" to "case by case review", and officially releasing the chip for export to China. But the US government has not completely lifted restrictions, but has imposed a series of harsh conditions: Chinese customers must not receive more than 50% of the total chips purchased by US customers; The relevant chips need to be audited by a third-party testing laboratory in the United States to confirm their AI technology capabilities; Chinese customers need to prove that they have sufficient security measures and are not allowed to use chips for military purposes. In addition, US President Trump previously requested that Nvidia pay 25% of the revenue from selling the chip to China to the US government, which has sparked widespread controversy in the industry.
The almost immediate response of China's control measures this time has triggered multiple interpretations of its strategic intention in the market. At present, the market generally believes that Beijing's initiative has three possible directions: firstly, to create a more favorable market environment for the development of the local chip industry. In recent years, China's domestically produced AI chips have made significant breakthroughs, with Huawei's Ascend 910B computing power approaching that of Nvidia's H100, with over 50000 units installed in domestic computing centers; Enterprises such as Qingwei Intelligent and Moore Thread have also achieved technological breakthroughs and market implementation. By 2025, China's self-sufficiency rate for AI chips has increased from 34% to 82%. The temporary ban on H200 entry is expected to further accelerate the process of domestic enterprises replacing high-end computing scenarios. Secondly, it is a countermeasure to the United States imposing harsh export conditions. The release by the United States this time is not unconditional, but continues to control the initiative through quantity restrictions, third-party audits, revenue sharing, and other means. China's control measures can be seen as a strategic response to such unequal terms. Thirdly, it is used as an important bargaining chip in the negotiations between China and the United States in the field of science and technology. Against the backdrop of the current multi domain game between China and the United States, high-end chips serve as a core strategic resource, and relevant control policies can become an important lever for fighting for more rights in subsequent negotiations.
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