The United States is considering "restricting the purchase" of H200 chips by Chinese companies. Experts: The United States' strategy of trying to contain China on AI chips has gone bankrupt.

# Global Times

The U.S. government is weighing its export policy for Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, considering a purchase cap of 75,000 units per Chinese enterprise to prevent the chips from being used for military purposes or enabling China to build top-tier supercomputers. Chinese experts note that Washington’s strategy to contain China’s AI development has failed, as China’s leading AI firms boast ample computing power reserves and have adopted a cautious investment approach. Industry insiders advise China to stay committed to independent innovation to gain the upper hand in the tech rivalry.

The U.S. government is repeatedly deliberating its export policy for Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, aiming to prevent advanced AI chips from being used for China’s military while keeping the country dependent on U.S. supplies and slowing the development of China’s homegrown AI chips. Latest reports indicate U.S. officials are weighing a per-company quantity cap on H200 chip exports to Chinese firms.

Bloomberg News, citing people familiar with the matter, reports the U.S. government has discussed setting a limit of 75,000 Nvidia H200 chips per Chinese buyer. The cap would also apply to Advanced Micro Devices’ (AMD) MI325 chips, which offer similar performance. Currently, demand for H200 chips is concentrated among a handful of Chinese tech giants; under the per-company cap, these firms would collectively receive only a few hundred thousand chips at most.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced last December that Nvidia would be allowed to export H200 chips to China. However, Nvidia has grown increasingly frustrated with the subsequent restrictions imposed by the U.S. government, deeming the export licensing conditions overly stringent—so much so that they could deter Chinese firms from purchasing the chips. These conditions include ensuring exports do not disrupt U.S. domestic supply and that the chips are not used for Chinese military purposes. Yet some White House officials argue quantity limits are the key to constraining China. The overall cap of 1 million H200 chips for China, while higher than some officials expected, falls far short of Nvidia’s initial proposal. Even so, concentrated deployment of these chips could still support the construction of one of the world’s top supercomputers—one reason U.S. officials are discussing a per-company import cap.

U.S. media note that Nvidia’s timeline and scope for re-entering the Chinese market were already uncertain, and a per-company quantity cap would further complicate the situation. Last week, Nvidia stated it still has no revenue from Chinese data centers and is unsure whether Beijing would permit imports even if Washington approves them.

Ma Jihua, a Chinese expert in communications and the internet, told the Global Times on March 3 that U.S. hardliners believe sustained containment will stifle China’s AI development, while moderates favor market dominance and maintaining generational gaps to suppress China’s independent progress. Though both factions share the same end goal, their tug-of-war risks sacrificing companies like Nvidia, which now struggles to sell its products despite wanting to.

For several major Chinese AI companies, existing computing power reserves are already robust, and many have scaled back computing power investments since the second half of last year. Washington’s years-long attempt to contain China via AI chip restrictions has collapsed—a reality the U.S. must acknowledge.

Wei Shaojun, chairman of the Integrated Circuit Design Branch of the China Semiconductor Industry Association, recently told the Global Times that from an industry development perspective, moderate access to advanced computing products can accelerate the commercialization of China’s AI technologies and push domestic firms to achieve rapid breakthroughs. However, Washington’s volatile policies on high-end chip exports to China leave Chinese users uncertain about its true intentions.

Wei argues that only by unswervingly pursuing independent innovation and continuously enhancing core technological competitiveness can China stand firm and gain the initiative in this tech rivalry without smoke.

Source: Global Times

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