Chinese chipmaker stocks are on the rise as Beijing limits the import of Nvidia’s H200 chips. The move clears ongoing confusion around China’s policy on advanced AI chip imports from the U.S. The authorities informed tech firms on Wednesday that H200 purchases will only be approved under special circumstances, such as university research and development labs.

The move pushed Chinese chipmakers’ stocks higher, since tech firms are effectively forced to rely on domestic counterparts. NVIDIA’s H200 chip imports to China have caught attention recently due to the uncertain U.S.-China trade relationship, Chinese AI hyperscalers ordering 2 million H200 chips, and China’s continued quest for technological self-reliance. 

NVIDIA’s Advanced AI Chips and Chaotic U.S.-China Relationship

Several U.S. and Chinese companies have been caught in the crossfire of ongoing skirmishes between Beijing and Washington. In 2025, the U.S. increased tariffs on all Chinese goods, and China retaliated with similar aggressive trade policies. The conflicts peaked as U.S. President Donald Trump threatened China with a 100% tariff. 

The U.S. later relaxed tariffs, yet Washington continues to devise strategies to curb China’s economic and technological growth. Previously, the U.S. had restricted Nvidia from selling advanced chips to Chinese buyers. In December 2025, the U.S. government relaxed its policy by allowing Nvidia to sell H200 chips to China, but the restrictions continue for Blackwell chips(more advanced than H series Chips).

Soaring Demand for Nvidia’s H200 in China: 2 Million Orders in Weeks

NVIDIA’s inventory was swiftly overwhelmed as Chinese firms placed 2 million orders for H200 within weeks. The expected price of one chip is around $27,000; hence, Nvidia’s potential gross revenue would exceed $54 billion. This is more than 40% of the company’s revenue in FY2025.

Will the Deal Happen?

The 2 million H200 deal is less likely to go through since Beijing is nudging Chinese companies to rely on onshore chipmakers by clamping down on Nvidia. The 2 million orders mostly come from AI hyperscalers and cloud services like Alibaba and ByteDance, who aim to train large AI models and build big data centres. None of these use cases comes under Beijing’s “special circumstances” approval. 

Beijing’s Push for Self-Reliance: Who Stands to Benefit?

China’s push for technological self-reliance became aggressive in 2014, as it blocked services like Google search, Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps, and Google Drive in mainland China using the Great Firewall. The country has built its own parallel stack of apps and services to minimize reliance on Western service providers.

As a result of this aggressive policy, local substitutes like Baidu, WeChat, Weibo, Taobao, Didi, and Bilibili now dominate in China. Beijing is pushing for a similar domestic environment by forcing hyperscalers to rely on Chinese companies instead of global giants like Nvidia.

Consequently, Chinese chip manufacturers’ stocks showed an expected rise today. SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp) ticked up 0.27%, while Hua Hong Semiconductor rose by 3.5%. AI accelerator designer Cambricon Technologies’ stock grew by 7%.

In short, Chinese companies that will play a crucial role in AI hyperscaling pipelines are likely to see significant growth in 2026 since tech firms are willing to pour billions into AI, and the Chinese government just changed the rules of the game in favor of the domestic players.