ISTANBUL

Chinese authorities have given "in-principle approval" to the country's tech giants, including Alibaba, to prepare for the purchase of Nvidia's H200 AI chips, implying that Beijing is close to legally permitting imports of components required to run artificial intelligence, Bloomberg reported Friday.

This comes as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was seen in the Chinese metropolis of Shanghai.

Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance have been asked to proceed with purchase preparations, the report said.

The corporations have now been permitted to discuss specifics such as the quantities required, according to the people, who asked to remain anonymous while discussing private negotiations.

According to sources, Beijing would require corporations to purchase a certain quantity of indigenous chips as a prerequisite for permission, though no exact figure has been established.

The talks indicate Beijing is proceeding with plans to authorize shipments of the H200, a last-generation semiconductor that has become important to delicate trade talks between the US and China.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang "is in Shanghai," Yicai news outlet reported. This marks his first visit to China this year, as he visited the Nvidia office in the city.

Jensen arrived in China a day after his appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

For Nvidia, which has aimed to begin operations with the biggest semiconductor arena in the world, it would be a significant victory. According to CEO Jensen Huang, the AI chip market alone might bring in $50 billion in the upcoming years. Local competitors like Huawei Technologies Co. and Cambricon Technologies Corp. have prospered in its absence and intend to significantly boost manufacturing.

Beijing's directives to its biggest tech companies contradict previous allegations that the government was preventing shipments of H200. The Financial Times reported last week that chip vendors had halted manufacturing.

The Trump administration has stated that the H200, an older-generation chip, can be shipped to China despite its restrictions on the sale of cutting-edge components due to national security concerns. The world's data center operators highly value Nvidia's artificial intelligence accelerators, which are the chips that aid in the development and operation of AI models.

Bloomberg had previously reported that China intends to permit some imports of H200 chips as early as this quarter, although they would be prohibited from sensitive agencies and essential infrastructure—a crucial distinction that is still up for debate.

Alibaba and ByteDance had earlier informed Nvidia in private that they would like to acquire more than 200,000 H200s each, according to the report.

Chinese consumers are in high demand for the H200, according to Nvidia executives. However, they stated that the corporation has not discussed approval with Beijing directly and that they are unsure of when China will approve sales.

Beijing has not made it clear whether it will permit H200 shipments. A new wave of incentives worth up to $70 billion for the semiconductor industry is part of the nation's self-sufficiency drive to strengthen its chipmaking skills.

In the middle of 2025, Chinese authorities advised local businesses not to use Nvidia's less potent H20 chips, an AI accelerator that the US had previously permitted to be exported to China. Additionally, corporations like Alibaba were instructed by China's cyberspace agency to stop placing orders for Nvidia's RTX Pro 6000D, a workstation processor that can be used for AI applications.