China tech’s GPU dilemma: pay more for black-market H200s, or use slower local AI chips
With firms waiting for import approval from Beijing, one reseller said finding H200 chips has gotten harder – even on the black market
Chinese AI companies wanting high-performance artificial intelligence chips from Nvidia are facing a dilemma: source them from the black market at much higher prices, or accept lower performance domestic alternatives from the likes of Huawei Technologies.
That is because Chinese customs officials are currently holding Nvidia’s H200 chips at the border, despite Washington granting approval for the US company to ship its second most advanced graphics processing unit (GPU) to China, according to three people familiar with the matter, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Any orders for the H200 were “super sensitive” right now, according to one source, who said it remained unclear when authorities would approve the imports.
The move, which signalled uncertainty from Chinese authorities over whether they would ultimately approve the import of H200 chips, had forced some buyers in urgent need to consider sourcing GPUs from the black market, two Nvidia GPU resellers in China told the Post on Wednesday.
One reseller said he had received “a couple of inquiries” over the past two days for the H200, and that a bundled server that combined eight H200 GPUs was currently going for around 2.3 million yuan (US$330,403), a roughly 50 per cent premium to the official list price in mainland China.