Trump confirms Beijing has rejected Nvidia H200 chip purchases; no units shipped despite U.S. Commerce Department approval

President Trump stated Friday that China has refused to approve purchases of Nvidia's H200 AI chips. The Commerce Department had cleared roughly 10 Chinese firms—including Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, and JD.com—to purchase up to 75,000 H200 chips each through distributors like Lenovo and Foxconn. Not a single H200 has shipped to a Chinese buyer; Beijing quietly steered domestic firms away from orders placed earlier in the year.

At current pricing, the ceiling on approved sales caps initial revenue at roughly $15–$20 billion. KeyBanc analyst John Vinh has modeled total Chinese demand at around 1.5 million units annually, or about $30 billion in revenue, if the licensing framework expands.

Trump said China chose not to buy because it wants to develop its own chips. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told a Senate hearing that Chinese firms are "trying to keep their investment focused on their own domestic" suppliers, including Huawei, suggesting China has made a strategic decision rather than a tactical pause.