Nvidia ordered 300,000 H20 chipsets from TSMC last week, according to two sources. One source noted that strong Chinese demand prompted the U.S. company to reconsider relying solely on its current stockpile.
The Trump administration has recently allowed Nvidia to restart the sale of H20 GPUs to China, reversing an April ban that was intended to restrict advanced AI chips for national security reasons. Made specifically for the Chinese market amid U.S. export controls implemented in late 2023, the H20 offers less computing power than Nvidia’s H100 or the Blackwell series available outside China.
Unnamed sources indicate that these new orders could boost Nvidia‘s current stock of 600,000 to 700,000 H20 chips. In 2024, Nvidia sold around 1 million H20 units, according to SemiAnalysis.
CEO Jensen Huang stated during a trip to Beijing that order levels would influence whether production resumes, with any restart projected to take nine months.
Post-trip reports from The Information indicated Nvidia had told customers it had limited H20 stock and no immediate plans to restart wafer production.
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Nvidia requires export licenses from the U.S. government to ship these chips, and it was expected that they would be approved by mid-July. However, multiple sources indicate that the licenses have not yet been approved.
One source said Nvidia is requesting Chinese customers to submit new documentation, including forecasted order volumes.
