Nvidia CEO says purchase orders, not formal declaration, will signal Chinese approval of H200

By Stephen Nellis

LAS VEGAS, Nevada, Jan 6 (Reuters) – Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on Tuesday he does not believe China’s government will make a formal declaration that it has allowed Chinese firms to import the U.S. company’s H200 chips but that evidence will come through purchase orders.

“My expectation is that we’re not expecting any press releases or any large declarations,” Huang said, after saying that demand for the H200 chips was strong among Chinese customers.

“It’s just going to be purchase orders. If the purchase orders come, it’s because they’re able to place purchase orders,” Huang said during a press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

U.S. President Donald Trump last year reversed a longstanding ban on shipping advanced artificial intelligence chips to China, saying he would allow Nvidia to sell the H200, which was the predecessor to its current flagship “Blackwell” chips. 

Earlier on Tuesday in an interview with a JPMorgan analyst, Nvidia CFO Colette Kress said that the U.S. government is “working feverishly” on license applications for Nvidia to ship its H200 chips to China, but that the company still does not know when they will be approved.

“We’re going to wait and see what will happen,” Kress said of the applications. 

At the press conference, Huang said that Nvidia is ramping up H200 chips for Chinese firms.

“The customer demand is high – quite high,” Huang said. “We’ve fired up our supply chain, and H200s are flowing through the line.” 

On Monday, Nvidia showed a sextet of new chips that it said are in full production to form the next “Vera Rubin” generation of its AI computing systems. Kress declined to say whether Nvidia was facing any specific bottlenecks as it ramps up production but said “we feel very solid” about the state of its supply chain.

Nvidia has called for $500 billion in sales from its current “Blackwell” generation as well as the forthcoming Vera Rubin chips by the end of this year. Kress said there have “already been discussions” about data center buildouts with customers for 2027 but did not give sales guidance. 

Huang said demand is high for Nvidia products across the board.

“I’m fully expecting a really giant year for our business with TSMC,” Huang said, referring to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, which makes most of Nvidia’s chips.

Huang also said that he plans a visit soon to Israel, where the company has 5,000 employees and is looking to double its workforce. Local media reported last month that Nvidia is in talks to buy Israeli firm AI21 Labs. 

He did not comment on that story or any other possible acquisition targets, but said he is open to more dealmaking.

“We might invest in, partner with, and we might, of course, acquire some semiconductor companies,” Huang said.

Responding to a Reuters question about whether his relationship with Trump played any role in Nvidia’s decisions around a deal for chip startup Groq – which was backed by 1789 Capital, a firm where Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr is a partner – Huang said he was unaware that 1789 Capital was a Groq investor.

“I didn’t know that,” Huang said. “I guess good for them, but I didn’t know that at all.”

(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in Las Vegas, Nevada; Editing by Andrea Ricci and Will Dunham)