China told tech companies to stop buying Nvidia's H200 chips this week

China has told some local tech companies to stop placing new orders for Nvidia’s H200 chips, according to a report from The Information published on Wednesday.

The request was sent this week and is part of a wider plan that could soon force companies to buy domestic AI chips instead.

The order comes as Donald Trump continues to do things he knows Xi Jinping doesn’t agree with, for absolutely no good reason at all.

The latest of those things is the US’s illegal arrest of Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro, something China calls “a disgusting act of bullying,” as Crypropolitan just reported.

Nvidia is stuck between two governments that don’t trust each other, or perhaps the right word here is “hate.”

Chip controls have become a core issue in the US–China beef Circa 2025, especially when Nvidia became the largest company on earth, surpassing $5 trillion, something no company has ever done.

Nvidia has gotten awfully chummy with the Trump administration, as semiconductors are now treated as strategic assets, not normal products. Beijing officials are still trying to decide if Nvidia’s high-performance chips should be allowed at all, and under what limits.

Beijing pauses orders as export approvals remain unresolved

According to The Information, Jinping wants to stop companies from rushing to stockpile U.S. chips before regulators finish their review.

Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, addressed the issue directly. “China is committed to basing its national development on its own strengths, and is also willing to maintain dialogue and cooperation with all parties to safeguard the stability of global industrial and supply chains.”

Cryptopolitan earlier reported that US export licenses for the H200 chips are still being processed, though there is no deadline and no public timeline, but Trump still wants to let it happen.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang spoke about the situation this week at the Consumer Electronics Show. He said demand in China for the H200 remains strong. He added that the company treats purchase orders as a sign of approval rather than waiting for a formal notice from Beijing.

That demand follows a policy shift in Washington. Late last year, Trump’s administration approved exports of H200 chips to China. The decision reversed earlier bans on advanced AI hardware. The approval came with a condition. Nvidia must pay a 25% revenue-sharing tax to the U.S. government.

The H200 is the chip that came before Nvidia’s current Blackwell line. It performs far better than the downgraded H20 chips now sold in China. Companies like Alibaba and ByteDance have shown interest in the H200 for that reason. For now, those orders remain frozen.

As of market close today, the NVDA stock is actually in the green, seemingly unbothered by this petty beef between the two most powerful men on the planet.

The smartest crypto minds already read our newsletter. Want in? Join them.