W.024About 600,000 Nvidia H200s are waiting in Hong Kong, 30 times the 20,000 the FT reported ByteDance and Tencent had received
About 600,000 Nvidia H200 chips are stored in Hong Kong awaiting Beijing’s approval to enter mainland China, Reuters reported on November 5. ByteDance and Tencent had each received about 10,000 in recent weeks, the FT reported in August. At the roughly $27,000 a chip Reuters reported in January, the stockpile is worth about $16.2B; an eight-chip H200 server was offered in China for more than 6 million yuan, about three times a year earlier. Nvidia’s outlook assumes no data center compute revenue from China.
What Reuters reported
The chips are in Hong Kong, not on the mainland. About 600,000 H200s are stored in Hong Kong awaiting shipment to mainland China, Reuters reported on November 5, citing two people familiar with the matter, because Beijing has not approved large-scale imports. Reuters did not say who holds them. Several large Chinese internet companies have each obtained about 10,000, it said; the FT reported on August 19 that ByteDance and Tencent had each received about 10,000 in recent weeks, while Beijing wanted most H200s kept in Hong Kong. Small quantities have reached the mainland through intermediaries, Reuters said, without giving volumes.
Scarcity shows in the price. By the end of October an eight-chip H200 server was being offered in mainland China for more than 6 million yuan, about $900,000, roughly three times the price a year earlier, according to one person cited by Reuters. That is about $113,000 for each GPU’s share of a server, about 4 times the chip price Reuters reported in January, though a server also holds processors, memory, networking and the seller’s markup. Blackwell servers were offered for more than 20 million yuan. Nvidia and the Chinese companies did not comment.
600,000 waiting; ByteDance and Tencent reported to have about 20,000
Nvidia H200 chips, thousands, as reported by Reuters (January 14, January 28, November 5) and the FT (August 19). None is a company figure, and they measure different things at different dates: orders, Nvidia’s inventory, Beijing’s approvals, the Hong Kong stockpile and chips ByteDance and Tencent were reported to have received; Reuters says several companies got about 10,000 each, so 20,000 is a floor. The tooltip on each bar gives the source.
Eleven months of licences and blocks
Washington approved the sales; Beijing has held most of them up. In December 2025 President Trump said the US would allow Nvidia to ship H200s to approved customers in China, with 25% going to the United States. In January Reuters reported that Chinese customs agents had been told the chips were not permitted to enter, that Chinese firms had ordered more than 2 million at about $27,000 each, and that Nvidia had about 700,000 in inventory; later that month it reported that Beijing had approved imports of 400,000 for ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent. Those approvals have not shown up as large deliveries.
Nvidia has written China out of its forecasts. In its quarterly report for the three months to July 26, Nvidia said the US had granted licences to ship small amounts of H200 to specific China-based customers but that the sales were restricted by the Chinese government, and that it had been unable to sell all the products it had licences for. It took a $0.4 billion charge in the first half of its fiscal year for H200 excess inventory and purchase obligations, and said H200 shipments under the program, which are subject to a 25% tariff on importation into the US, were less than 1% of Data Center revenue. Its outlook of $108 billion for the quarter to October assumes no data center compute revenue from China. Nvidia still booked $7.9B of revenue from customers headquartered in China, including Hong Kong, in the July quarter, 8% of the total, up from about $4.6B in the quarter before; that figure covers all its products.
At $27,000 a chip, about $16.2B
The value of about 600,000 H200s, $ billions, our calculation two ways: at the about $27,000 a chip Reuters reported in January, and as 75,000 eight-chip servers at the about $900,000 asking price in mainland China at the end of October, which includes the rest of each server and the seller’s markup. For scale, Nvidia’s revenue from customers headquartered in China and Hong Kong, all products, and its Data Center revenue, both for the quarter to July 26, 2026.
An H200 server costs three times what it did a year ago
Asking prices for AI servers in mainland China, million yuan, as reported by Reuters on November 5: an eight-GPU H200 server at the end of October, “more than” 6 million, and a Blackwell server, “more than” 20 million. The first bar is a third of 6 million, our calculation from Reuters’ “about three times” a year earlier.
What this changes on 06.ai
- Tracker lead (GPU compute price index): mainland China H200 server prices, now reported at about three times a year earlier, are a price series outside the rental markets the index covers; worth a note if it can be sourced regularly.
- Pack lead (Will AI compute run short or long through 2030?): about 600,000 H200s sitting idle is supply that exists but is not deployed; if Beijing releases them, they would add to China’s compute at once.
- Watch: Nvidia’s results on November 17, for any change to its China assumption or a further H200 charge.
Sources and method
| Item | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Stockpile | About 600,000 H200 chips stored in Hong Kong awaiting shipment to the mainland, citing two people familiar; Beijing has not approved large-scale imports; several major Chinese internet companies each obtained about 10,000; small quantities reached the mainland through intermediaries; an eight-card H200 server offered for more than 6 million yuan ($900,000) by end-October, about three times a year earlier | Reuters, via Investing.com, Nov 5 |
| Stockpile | Same report; Blackwell servers offered for more than 20 million yuan; companies did not respond to requests for comment | Unite.AI, Nov 5 |
| August | ByteDance and Tencent each received about 10,000 H200s in recent weeks; Beijing wants most H200s kept in Hong Kong | FT, via Benzinga, Aug 19 |
| January | Chinese customs told agents H200s are not permitted to enter; Chinese firms had ordered more than 2 million H200s at about $27,000 each; Nvidia had about 700,000 in inventory | Reuters, via BusinessDay, Jan 14 |
| January | China approved imports of 400,000 H200s for ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent | Reuters, via pulse.bot, Jan 28 |
| US policy | The US will allow Nvidia to ship H200s to approved customers in China, with 25% to the United States | The Register, Dec 9, 2025 |
| Nvidia 10-Q | Licenses to ship small amounts of H200 to specific China-based customers; sales restricted by the PRC government; $0.4B charge for H200 excess inventory and purchase obligations; H200s shipped under the program subject to a 25% tariff on importation into the US; those shipments less than 1% of Data Center revenue; revenue from customers headquartered in China (incl. Hong Kong) $7,880M in the quarter to July 26, 2026 ($3,985M a year earlier), $12,430M in the six months | Nvidia 10-Q, quarter to Jul 26, 2026 |
| Nvidia | Revenue $96.2B, Data Center $89.0B; third-quarter outlook $108.0B ±2%; not assuming any Data Center compute revenue from China | Nvidia release, Aug 26 |
| Nvidia | Third-quarter results call on November 17, 2026 | Nvidia, Oct 28 |
Value: 600,000 × $27,000 = $16.2B; against Data Center revenue of $89B, 18.2%. As servers, 600,000 ÷ 8 = 75,000 × $900,000 = $67.5B. Per GPU, $900,000 ÷ 8 = $112,500, 4.2× $27,000. Reuters’ conversion implies 6.67 yuan to the dollar. If all 600,000 were shipped under the US program at $27,000, the 25% tariff would come to $4.0B; Nvidia has not said how the tariff is valued.
Counts: 600,000 ÷ 20,000 = 30; 20,000 ÷ 600,000 = 3.3%. A year-earlier server price of about 2 million yuan is 6 million ÷ 3. Nvidia: China including Hong Kong in the quarter to April is the six months’ $12,430M less the July quarter’s $7,880M = $4,550M; 7,880 ÷ 96,200 = 8.2%. The July-quarter figure is by customer headquarters and includes gaming and other products, so it is not a measure of H200 sales.
Wire reports are written within hours of the news, on a six-hour schedule. Each lists its sources and shows the arithmetic behind its figures. Not investment advice.