# About 600,000 Nvidia H200 Chips Are Stuck in Hong Kong as Beijing Withholds Import Approval, Reuters Reports

Times of AI Desk · 2026-11-05 · Infrastructure

[https://timesof.ai/2026/11/nvidia-600000-h200-chips-hong-kong-china-withholds-approval](https://timesof.ai/2026/11/nvidia-600000-h200-chips-hong-kong-china-withholds-approval)

> About 600,000 Nvidia H200 AI chips are stored in Hong Kong waiting to enter mainland China because Beijing has not approved large-scale imports, two people told Reuters. Several big Chinese internet companies have each received about 10,000, and an eight-card H200 server sold for more than 6 million yuan in October, about three times its price a year earlier, one person said.

Washington has already said yes to Nvidia's H200 sales to China; the hold-up now is Beijing. About **600,000** of the chips are stored in **Hong Kong** awaiting shipment to the mainland, two people familiar with the matter told **Reuters** in an exclusive published on **November 5**, because Chinese authorities have not approved large-volume imports.

## What Reuters found

China has let some H200s in over recent months, three people told Reuters, and several major Chinese internet companies have each obtained about **10,000**. Small quantities have also arrived through intermediaries and indirect routes, the people said, without saying how many.

Scarcity shows up in prices. An eight-card H200 server was offered in mainland China for more than **6 million yuan** (about $900,000) by the end of October, roughly three times its price a year earlier, one person said. Servers built on Nvidia's newer Blackwell chips, which remain under US export controls, were offered for more than 20 million yuan each, the same person said.

China's industry ministry and planning commission did not respond to Reuters, and neither did Nvidia, Alibaba, ByteDance, DeepSeek or Tencent.

## Why Beijing is holding back

Reuters says the stockpile reflects Beijing's reluctance to deepen its dependence on US technology even as Chinese companies need the compute. The H200 is not Nvidia's newest processor, but Reuters says Chinese alternatives have not matched it, particularly for training when paired with Nvidia's software.

The US cleared H200 sales to approved Chinese customers last year after trade talks. Reuters cites a July report by The Information that Chinese officials told some companies they could buy limited quantities for training, with total approvals possibly under 200,000 chips, and wanted domestic processors used for inference. Chinese buyers have also turned to less powerful export-compliant parts: Reuters reported last month that [ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent ordered more than 3 million RTX Pro 5500 cards](https://timesof.ai/2026/10/bytedance-alibaba-tencent-35b-nvidia-rtx-pro-5500-orders-reuters).

## Limits

- The 600,000 figure and the prices come from anonymous sources; no company or government confirmed them.
- Reuters does not say who owns the stored chips or how long they have been in Hong Kong.
- The Information's 200,000 approval estimate is from July and may be out of date.

## Sources

- [Reuters via Investing.com: Exclusive-Nvidia chips pile up in Hong Kong as China withholds import approval (November 5, 2026)](https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/exclusivenvidia-chips-pile-up-in-hong-kong-as-china-withholds-import-approval-5003223)