In what appears to be a case of diplomatic mind games in action, one day after the US government issued a regulation clearing the way for Nvidia to sell its H200 artificial intelligence processors to Chinese companies on a case-by-case basis, a published report has revealed Chinese custom officers have been told not to let them into the country. The ruling announced Monday by the US commerce department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS),
Nvidia's H200 GPUs could begin trickling into China as soon as this quarter, but there's a catch. Due to all the geopolitical turmoil that's ravaged US-China trade relations over the past year, buyers may need to pay up front for the coveted AI accelerators. And they won't get a refund if China decides to block the imports! On Thursday, Bloomberg reported that authorities in Beijing could green-light shipments of H200s - currently the most powerful GPU Uncle Sam has ever allowed Nvidia to sell in China - as soon as this quarter.