Daily: Nvidia to resume H200 China sales
4 min read.
Highlights
H200s to China resumes. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said that Nvidia is restarting the fabrication of H200 chips for sale in China. Reuters reports that Beijing has approved the sale of H200 chips to multiple Chinese companies. Jensen said similar things, saying that demand for Nvidia chips in China has strengthened in recent weeks and that Nvidia has “been licensed for many customers in China.”
There’s been lots of stops and starts in this H200 saga for the better part of the last year, so this might not be the end of the story. Nvidia still needs to clear interdepartmental reviews from Washington, and Beijing hasn’t released what their own conditions will be. US Congress still has bills in the works that may add additional constraints on Nvidia’s China sales. Previous reporting suggested that any deal might be limited in size; there hasn’t been any details on the size of the purchases/licenses, so let’s see.
Reuters also reports that Nvidia is developing a version of its new Groq-based inference chips to be sold to China.
Nvidia sales to top $1 tr. Jensen Huang’s headline-grabbing comment yesterday that revenue expects to reach US$1 trillion was revised for an even more bullish sentiment; the US$1 trillion projection does not even include Nvidia’s other products. Jensen expects total revenue to surpass US$1 trillion in sales through 2027.
SK Hynix listing. SK Hynix, which is currently listed on the Korean stock exchange, is looking to cross-list on an American exchange to capitalise on AI driven premiums.
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1. Policy and Geopolitics
1.1
WSJ (03/17): Nvidia Says It Is Restarting Production of AI Chips for Sale in China
Nvidia has restarted manufacturing of its H200 processors for sale in China, Chief Executive Jensen Huang said Tuesday, signaling a possible shift in the chip giant’s fortunes in the world’s second-largest market.
Speaking at the company’s GTC event Tuesday, Huang said that in recent weeks, demand signals out of China have strengthened.
“We’ve been licensed for many customers in China. We’ve received purchase orders from many customers, and we’re in the process of restarting our manufacturing,” Huang said. “Our supply chain is getting fired up.”
1.2
Reuters (03/18): Nvidia preparing Groq chips that can be sold in Chinese market, sources say
Nvidia is preparing a version of its Groq artificial-intelligence chips that can be sold to the Chinese market, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.
Nvidia licensed technology from Groq, an AI chip startup, late last year in a $17 billion deal and showed a new lineup of products based around its chips at its annual developer conference in San Jose, California, this week.
1.3
Reuters (03/18): Chinese authorities approve Nvidia’s H200 AI chip sales, source says
Chinese authorities have granted approval for multiple Chinese companies to purchase H200 AI chips from Nvidia, according to a person familiar with the situation.
A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington said they were “not aware of the specifics,” and directed questions to “the competent authorities.”
2. Economy, Finance, and Business
2.1
Bloomberg (03/17): Nvidia Sees Sales Goal Topping $1 Trillion With New Markets
Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang said the $1 trillion projection he issued a day ago for AI chip sales doesn’t capture other product offerings and signaled that total revenue will surpass that level as the company pushes into new markets.
Nvidia expects to close, book and ship more than $1 trillion in business, Huang said at a company event in San Jose, California. The chipmaker has “strong confidence of $1 trillion-plus,” he told an audience of analysts and investors.
2.2
Reuters (03/18): AMD CEO Lisa Su to visit Samsung chip plant in South Korea, discuss expanding ties, source says
Advanced Micro Devices CEO Lisa Su is set to visit Samsung Electronics’ chip production site in Pyeongtaek, South Korea on Wednesday, where she will tour production lines and discuss expanding cooperation beyond memory into foundry manufacturing, a source with knowledge of the trip said.
Su is expected to meet chip executives, including Samsung’s chip division chief Jun Young-hyun and Foundry Business head Han Jin-man during the visit, said the source, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.
2.3
Korea Herald (03/17): SK hynix eyes US listing to unlock AI premium
SK hynix, the world’s second-largest memory chip maker, is stepping up plans to list on the US market via American Depositary Receipts or ADRs, as it looks to close a persistent valuation gap with global semiconductor peers despite strong AI-driven earnings.
2.4
Bloomberg (03/17): Qualcomm Buying Back $20 Billion in Shares, Boosts Dividend
Qualcomm Inc., the largest maker of smartphone processors, plans to buy back another $20 billion worth of shares and is raising its quarterly cash dividend as part of a broader effort to bolster shareholder returns while diversifying its business.
The chipmaker’s board has approved the new stock repurchase program, which adds to previous buybacks announced in November 2024, according to a company statement. The San Diego-based company’s quarterly dividend will rise to 92 cents a share from 89 cents after March 26. Its annualized dividend payout will increase to $3.68 a share.
3. Technology
3.1
JoongAng Daily (03/18): Korean startup targets Nvidia-dominated AI inference market with 2027 chip launch
A small Korean fabless startup, Hyper Accel, says its first AI chip — designed for language-model inference in data centers — could outperform Nvidia GPUs by up to five times in terms of efficiency when it launches next year.
The first samples of the startup’s AI chip, code-named Bertha 500, recently came out, built on Samsung Foundry’s 4-nanometer logic processing and co-developed with Naver Cloud. Hyper Accel CEO and founder Kim Joo-young is targeting mass production of Bertha 500 in early 2027, with initial supply planned for Naver Cloud and potential global Big Tech customers.
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