Nvidia’s Sale of H200 AI Chips to ByteDance Stalls Over US Conditions

Image Credit: Generated with Gemini

The Trump administration is prepared to allow China’s ByteDance to purchase Nvidia’s H200 artificial intelligence chips, but the sale is on hold because Nvidia has not agreed to the conditions attached to the export license. 

The United States indicated about two weeks ago that it would approve the license, but the draft terms include a Know-Your-Customer requirement designed to ensure China’s military cannot access the chips, along with other unspecified safeguards.

More broadly, Nvidia is negotiating with the US government over the terms of licenses to ship its H200 AI chips to Chinese companies. The H200 is one of Nvidia’s most powerful processors and is critical for training large AI models. In a statement, Nvidia described itself as an intermediary between the US government and potential customers, saying that while KYC requirements are important, any conditions must be commercially practical or sales will shift to foreign alternatives.

ByteDance, the owner of TikTok and one of China’s largest AI companies, has not commented publicly on the stalled license. The US is still expected to allow Nvidia and AMD to sell H200-class chips into China once national security concerns are addressed, following a prior decision by President Donald Trump to greenlight such exports in principle.