Nvidia needs TSMC’s help to meet Chinese H200 demand

With the sales ban lifted, Chinese tech giants, including ByteDance, are scrambling to secure orders for Nvidia’s H200 graphics accelerators while they can. But will there be enough to satisfy demand?

Citing multiple sources familiar with the matter, Reuters reports Chinese companies have placed orders for more than 2 million of the chips. That’s up from the 40,000 to 80,000 initial orders reported last week.

But with just 700,000 of the now two-year-old AI accelerators in stock, Nvidia has reportedly approached TSMC to ramp production of the chips. The H200 uses TSMC’s 4N process, a slightly older version of technology used by its higher-performance Blackwell parts (4NP), which remain unavailable in China.

Nvidia doesn’t anticipate sales of H200s in China will have any impact on chip supplies to US customers.

“Offering the H200 to approved commercial customers, vetted by the Department of Commerce, strikes a thoughtful balance,” a company spokesperson told The Register and other outlets. “China is a highly competitive market with rapidly growing local chip suppliers. Blocking all U.S. exports undercut our national and economic security and only benefited…