Nvidia Corp is scrambling to meet demand for its H200 artificial intelligence (AI) chips from Chinese technology companies and has approached contract manufacturer Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to ramp up production, sources said.
Chinese technology companies have placed orders for more than 2 million H200 chips for this year, while Nvidia holds just 700,000 units in stock, two of the people said.
The exact additional volume Nvidia intends to order from TSMC remains unclear, they said.
Photo: Reuters
A third source said that Nvidia has asked TSMC to begin production of the additional chips and work is expected to start in the second quarter of this year.
Nvidia has decided which H200 variants it would offer to Chinese customers and has priced them at about US$27,000 per chip, the sources said.
The moves raise concerns over whether there could be further tightening in global AI chip supplies, as Nvidia now has to strike the right balance between meeting robust Chinese demand and addressing constrained supplies elsewhere.
They could also intensify risks for Nvidia, as Beijing has yet to greenlight any shipments of H200 chips.
The administration of US President Donald Trump only recently allowed exports of the H200 to China.
Nvidia said in response to a request for comment that it continuously manages its supply chain.
“Licensed sales of the H200 to authorized customers in China will have no impact on our ability to supply customers in the United States,” a Nvidia spokesperson said.
The potential order would mark a significant expansion of H200 production at a time when Nvidia has been focused on ramping up its newer Blackwell and upcoming Rubin chip lines. The H200, part of Nvidia’s previous-generation Hopper architecture, uses TSMC’s 4-nanometer manufacturing process.
Nvidia plans to fulfill initial orders from existing stock, with the first batch of H200 chips expected to arrive before the Lunar New Year holiday in the middle of next month.
The bulk of the orders of more than 2 million chips has come from major Chinese Internet companies, which view the H200 as a significant upgrade over chips currently available to them, two of the people said.
Of Nvidia’s current 700,000-unit inventory, about 100,000 are GH200 superchips, which combine Nvidia’s Grace central processing unit with the Hopper graphics processing unit architecture, while the remainder are standalone H200 chips, one of the sources said.
Both variants would be offered to Chinese customers, the person said.
ByteDance Ltd (字節跳動) this year plans to spend about 100 billion yuan (US$14.29 billion) on Nvidia’s chips, up from about 85 billion yuan last year, if China allows H200 sales, the South China Morning Post reported yesterday, citing sources.
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