By Shan Ahmed Khan
Publication Date: 2025-12-31 09:34:00
NEW YORK, December 31, 2025, 03:59 ET — Market closed
- Nvidia moved to boost potential H200 AI chip supply as Chinese demand jumps, sources said.
- AI-linked chip stocks ended mixed in thin year-end trading on Tuesday.
- Traders are watching China import approvals and shifting U.S. export rules.
Nvidia (NVDA.O) has approached contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (2330.TW) to ramp output of its H200 graphics processing units — chips used to train and run artificial-intelligence models — as demand from Chinese tech firms jumps, sources told Reuters. Chinese companies have ordered more than 2 million H200 chips for 2026, far above the roughly 700,000 units Nvidia holds in inventory, the people said. TSMC is expected to begin work on expanded output in the second quarter of 2026, and the plan depends on whether Beijing clears H200 imports after Washington recently allowed exports to China with a 25% fee, the sources said. Reuters
The development lands as investors head into the final U.S. session of the year with “AI stocks” still tethered to two hard realities: supply is finite and policy can change fast. China remains a crucial end-market for data-center hardware, and the sector has a track record of reacting sharply to trade-rule headlines.
It also underlines how the AI boom spreads through the supply chain. When a top buyer pulls forward orders, it can ripple from Nvidia to its manufacturing partners and on to the cloud companies and enterprises…