(Reuters) – China has approved its top artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek’s purchase of Nvidia’s (NVDA) H200 artificial intelligence chips, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters, with regulatory conditions still being finalized.
Citing sources, Reuters reported on Wednesday that ByteDance, Alibaba (BABA, 9988.HK) and Tencent (0700.HK, TCEHY) have been approved to purchase a total of more than 400,000 H200 chips.
Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang told reporters in Taipei on Thursday that his company had not received such information. He added that he believed China was still finalizing the license. Nvidia did not respond to a request for comment on DeepSeek’s approval.
Sources said China’s Ministry of Industry and Commerce has approved all four companies but stipulated they would impose some conditions, which are still being finalized. The conditions are being determined by China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), a person familiar with the matter said.
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Commerce and National Development and Reform Commission did not respond to requests for comment.
DeepSeek stunned the global tech industry early last year with the launch of an artificial intelligence model that cost a fraction of the cost of developing models by U.S. rivals such as OpenAI (OPAI.PVT). The company did not respond to a request for comment.
The H200 is Nvidia’s second most powerful artificial intelligence chip and has become a major flashpoint in Sino-US relations. Despite strong demand from Chinese companies and U.S. export approvals, Beijing’s hesitancy to allow imports has been a major impediment to shipments.
Earlier this month, the United States officially cleared the way for Nvidia to sell the H200 to China, where the company is seeing strong demand. However, Chinese authorities have the final say on whether to allow imports.
Any purchase of H200 chips by DeepSeek would likely draw scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers. Reuters reported on Wednesday that a senior U.S. lawmaker claimed Nvidia helped DeepSeek hone an artificial intelligence model later used by the Chinese military, according to a letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
As reported earlier this month, DeepSeek is expected to launch V4, its next-generation AI model with powerful coding capabilities, in mid-February.
(Reporting by Fanny Potkin; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
