● Covered by 5 sources · 9 reportsMedium impact6 negative3 neutral
China allows ByteDance and Tencent to import 10,000 H200 chips each for AI development
Key points
- ByteDance and Tencent received 10,000 NVIDIA H200 chips each.
- China eased restrictions to aid local AI model training.
- US previously banned H200 sales to China due to military concerns.
- Companies are directed to ship chips to Hong Kong to support domestic chip industry.
- NVIDIA is holding 500,000 H200s built for Chinese customers.
- Trump cleared H200 exports to approved Chinese customers last December.
- Trump's approval included a 25% cut of each sale to the U.S. Treasury.
- Washington licensed about 10 firms for H200 exports by May.
- Alibaba and JD.com are among the licensed firms for H200 exports.
- Deliveries are subject to individual purchase approvals by China's National Development and Reform Commission.
- Most of each company's U.S.-licensed allowance must stay outside the mainland, largely in Hong Kong.
- The 10,000 chips amount to roughly 2.5% of the 400,000+ units approved for ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent.
- Terms formalized in January require each chip to pass through US territory for third-party inspection.
- The Commerce Department moved license applications to case-by-case review on January 16.
- Taiwanese prosecutors indicted nine individuals for illegally exporting AI servers to China.
- NVIDIA and Super Micro employees were among those indicted.
- The indicted individuals are accused of severely damaging Taiwan's international image.
- Taiwan indicted nine individuals for illegally exporting NVIDIA B300 GPUs to China.
- The illegal export scheme involved a five-step process to subvert restrictions.
- Supermicro terminated employees after an internal investigation into smuggling activities.
- Supermicro's Taiwan subsidiary sells B300 systems only to whitelisted buyers.
- Taiwanese prosecutors did not release names of the indicted individuals.
- The suspects were charged with breach of trust and document forgery.
- One suspect linked to a related case remains at large.
- The at-large suspect is accused of siphoning funds from a distributor company.
- The US arrested Supermicro co-founder Wally Liaw in March.
- Wally Liaw allegedly funneled $2.5 billion in restricted AI servers to China since 2024.
- Co-conspirators falsified documents to show 130 B300 servers were in use in Taiwan.
- 74 of the 130 B300 servers were ultimately shipped to China.
- The US required licenses for exports of NVIDIA H20 chips to China in April 2025.
- Purchases of more than eight high-end AI servers require on-site checks by company staff.
- 50 servers were sent through Indonesia, 16 directly to China, and eight via Japan/Hong Kong.
- An attempt involving 56 servers failed, and they remain in Taiwan.
- Unimicron is being investigated for relabeling China-made PCBs as Taiwanese products.
- Unimicron is a major PCB and chip substrate manufacturer.
- Unimicron supplies Nvidia, Intel, Google, and Amazon.
- Investigators raided Unimicron's headquarters and a manufacturing plant on August 28.
- 14 employees, including general and deputy general managers, were questioned as suspects.
- Four additional people were questioned as witnesses.
- The alleged conduct contravened Articles 216, 210, and 255 of Taiwan's Criminal Code.
- Wang, PCB department general manager, was released on NT$15 million bail.
- Wu, a deputy general manager, was released on NT$12 million bail.
- Three others posted bail ranging from NT$300,000 to NT$5 million.
- Nine employees were released without bail.
Chip Shipments Begin for Chinese Tech Giants
ByteDance and Tencent have reportedly begun receiving shipments of NVIDIA H200 chips, with each company obtaining 10,000 units. This development follows reports that China is relaxing import restrictions to bolster its domestic AI capabilities.
The H200 chips are intended to help these companies train advanced AI models, enabling them to enhance their competitive position against American technology firms.
Background on US Export Controls
The US government had previously imposed a ban on H200 sales to China, citing concerns that the technology could be used to advance the country's military capabilities. In December 2025, NVIDIA was permitted to sell H200 processors to approved Chinese customers, though the chips were already two years old at that point.
Earlier reports indicated that China agreed to import hundreds of thousands of H200 chips, and in May, the US reportedly granted permission to 10 Chinese firms, including ByteDance and Tencent, to purchase these processors.
Strategic Import and Domestic Industry Support
While ByteDance and Tencent are authorized to purchase up to 100,000 chips each, China is reportedly encouraging companies to keep most of these processors outside the mainland. This strategy aims to foster the growth of China's domestic chip industry.
Chinese authorities have advised companies to direct their chip orders to Hong Kong, even though these companies currently lack data centers in the region. This directive aligns with China's efforts to reduce reliance on foreign products and respond to US export controls by developing its own AI chip technology.
Updates
- Unimicron is being investigated for relabeling China-made PCBs as Taiwanese products.
- Unimicron is a major PCB and chip substrate manufacturer.
- Unimicron supplies Nvidia, Intel, Google, and Amazon.
- Investigators raided Unimicron's headquarters and a manufacturing plant on August 28.
- 14 employees, including general and deputy general managers, were questioned as suspects.
- Four additional people were questioned as witnesses.
- The alleged conduct contravened Articles 216, 210, and 255 of Taiwan's Criminal Code.
- Wang, PCB department general manager, was released on NT$15 million bail.
- Wu, a deputy general manager, was released on NT$12 million bail.
- Three others posted bail ranging from NT$300,000 to NT$5 million.
- Nine employees were released without bail.
- 50 servers were sent through Indonesia, 16 directly to China, and eight via Japan/Hong Kong.
- An attempt involving 56 servers failed, and they remain in Taiwan.
- The US required licenses for exports of NVIDIA H20 chips to China in April 2025.
- Purchases of more than eight high-end AI servers require on-site checks by company staff.
- Taiwanese prosecutors did not release names of the indicted individuals.
- The suspects were charged with breach of trust and document forgery.
- One suspect linked to a related case remains at large.
- The at-large suspect is accused of siphoning funds from a distributor company.
- The US arrested Supermicro co-founder Wally Liaw in March.
- Wally Liaw allegedly funneled $2.5 billion in restricted AI servers to China since 2024.
- Co-conspirators falsified documents to show 130 B300 servers were in use in Taiwan.
- 74 of the 130 B300 servers were ultimately shipped to China.
- Taiwan indicted nine individuals for illegally exporting NVIDIA B300 GPUs to China.
- The illegal export scheme involved a five-step process to subvert restrictions.
- Supermicro terminated employees after an internal investigation into smuggling activities.
- Supermicro's Taiwan subsidiary sells B300 systems only to whitelisted buyers.
- Taiwanese prosecutors indicted nine individuals for illegally exporting AI servers to China.
- NVIDIA and Super Micro employees were among those indicted.
- The indicted individuals are accused of severely damaging Taiwan's international image.
- Deliveries are subject to individual purchase approvals by China's National Development and Reform Commission.
- Most of each company's U.S.-licensed allowance must stay outside the mainland, largely in Hong Kong.
- The 10,000 chips amount to roughly 2.5% of the 400,000+ units approved for ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent.
- Terms formalized in January require each chip to pass through US territory for third-party inspection.
- The Commerce Department moved license applications to case-by-case review on January 16.
- NVIDIA is holding 500,000 H200s built for Chinese customers.
- Trump cleared H200 exports to approved Chinese customers last December.
- Trump's approval included a 25% cut of each sale to the U.S. Treasury.
- Washington licensed about 10 firms for H200 exports by May.
- Alibaba and JD.com are among the licensed firms for H200 exports.
✨ This summary was generated by AI from the outlets' reporting listed below. It is not independently verified and may contain errors — check the original sources. How BrevFeed works →
The daily brief
One email each morning: the day's tech stories, clustered across outlets and summarized. No account needed.
One email a day. Unsubscribe in one click, any time.
Today's brief
Spend a few minutes, get the whole day. Every topic's top stories in one hands-free rundown — listen, watch, or read the transcript.
▶ Play today's brief
New every morning, and the back catalogue is archived by date.
How outlets covered it
Taiwanese prosecutors are investigating Unimicron, a major PCB and chip substrate manufacturer, for allegedly relabeling China-made PCBs as Taiwanese products. This investigation could lead to significant tariffs for Unimicron's American customers if the relabeled products reached the U.S., impacting major tech companies like Nvidia, Intel, Google, and Amazon.
Taiwanese prosecutors charged nine individuals, including employees from Nvidia and Super Micro, for illegally exporting B300 GPU servers to mainland China, circumventing US export controls. This incident highlights ongoing challenges in enforcing restrictions on advanced AI hardware sales to China, impacting the US-China AI rivalry.
Taiwanese prosecutors charged nine individuals, including employees from Nvidia and Super Micro, for illegally exporting high-end AI servers containing B300 GPUs to mainland China. This action highlights the ongoing challenges in enforcing export controls on advanced AI hardware between the US and China.
Taiwanese authorities have indicted nine individuals, reportedly including an Nvidia senior manager and two Supermicro employees, for allegedly forging documents to illegally export high-end AI servers to China, circumventing US export controls. This action follows a broader US investigation into Supermicro for funneling restricted AI servers to China, highlighting ongoing efforts to enforce semiconductor export regulations aimed at national security.
Nine individuals have been indicted in Taiwan for their involvement in a five-step scheme to illegally export Nvidia B300 GPUs to China, circumventing export restrictions. This indictment follows an internal investigation by Supermicro into similar smuggling activities and highlights ongoing challenges in controlling advanced technology exports.
Taiwanese prosecutors have indicted nine individuals, including employees from NVIDIA and Super Micro, for illegally exporting high-end AI servers to China. This action highlights ongoing efforts to circumvent US and Taiwanese export controls on advanced AI technology to China, despite relaxed restrictions on some older NVIDIA chips.
ByteDance and Tencent recently received approximately 10,000 Nvidia H200 accelerators each in mainland China, marking the first significant deliveries of these chips under new export licenses. These deliveries are subject to individual purchase approvals by China's National Development and Reform Commission and represent a small fraction of previously approved orders, indicating a shift towards domestic chip solutions in China.
ByteDance and Tencent have received approximately 10,000 Nvidia H200 accelerators each, marking the first significant movement of these chips into mainland China since export approval in December. This development indicates a partial easing of Beijing's previous blockade on U.S.-licensed chip imports, though infrastructure limitations in Hong Kong pose deployment challenges.
ByteDance and Tencent have reportedly received 10,000 NVIDIA H200 chips each, with China easing restrictions to support local AI model training. This move allows Chinese companies to better compete with American counterparts in AI development, despite previous US bans on H200 sales to China.