(Reuters), Chinese companies, notably Bytedance, Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings, spent at least $ 16 billion in orders for NVIDIA H20 server fleas in the first three months of the year, the information reported on Wednesday, citing two people with direct transactions.
In February, Reuters first reported an increase in orders for the H20 – the most advanced AI processor legally available in China under American export controls – driven by booming demand for low cost of Deepseek.
Nvidia refused to comment while Bytedance, Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings did not immediately respond to requests for comments from Reuters.
The H20 is the first chip that Nvidia is legally authorized for sale in China and was launched after the last series of American export restrictions entered into force in October 2023.
H3C, one of the largest manufacturers of Chinese servers, reported potential shortages of the NVIDIA H20 chip, according to a Reuters report in March.
A potential supply crisis could hinder the ambitions of Chinese companies, especially when they widen their investments in technology.
H3C is a major OEM partner for NVIDIA AI fleas in China, as well as Inspur, Lenovo and the Huawei spin-off server unit, Xfusion.
Washington has prohibited exports from Nvidia’s most advanced fleas to China since 2022, fearing that advanced technologies can be used by China to strengthen its military capacities.
President Donald Trump said in February that he intended to impose prices of around 25% on imports of semiconductors and related products.
The CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, said that the company sees little short-term impact, but would move production in the United States in the longer term.
China remains a crucial market for NVIDIA, the company generating an annual turnover of $ 17.11 billion in the region (including Hong Kong) during the year 2025.
(Report by Priyanka.G and Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; edition by Anil d’Alva and Vijay Kishore)
