Nvidia Shares Slip After Limited H200 Exports to China

Nvidia shares dropped about 1.2% after U.S. trade officials told a House committee that the company has begun limited exports of its H200 artificial intelligence chips to China under a case-by-case licensing process. The initial shipments were described as “very few” by an administration official. The stock later recovered some ground and was trading down roughly 0.7% at the time of the report.

U.S. regulators have approved about 10 Chinese firms to receive advanced AI hardware, including Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance and a unit of ZTE. Approved recipients must meet national security conditions and are subject to inspections as part of the licensing requirements.

The approvals prompted criticism in Congress. Representative Gregory Meeks said the administration was using export controls as “a bargaining chip in broader negotiations with China.” Representative Bill Huizenga warned that overseas subsidiaries of Chinese companies could exploit gaps in regulation to retain advanced Nvidia Blackwell chips.

Wall Street analysts remained constructive on Nvidia’s long-term demand for AI hardware. KeyBanc kept an Overweight rating and raised its price target to $330 from $310, describing Nvidia’s supply outlook as “mixed but mostly positive.” KeyBanc noted modest production delays for Nvidia’s next-generation Vera Rubin architecture related to thermal heat lid issues and qualification of HBM4 memory with SK Hynix, but said those factors posed minimal risk to its estimates and expected increased shipments of B300 GPUs to help meet demand.

Nvidia leadership defended the product timeline. Speaking in Tokyo, Jensen Huang dismissed reports of Vera Rubin delays and said high-end AI accelerator systems remain on schedule for customer deliveries at “giant” production volumes. Earlier this year the company reported that Vera Rubin had entered full production using high-bandwidth memory from Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron Technology.

Nvidia also announced a new partnership milestone with Nokia to develop an AI-powered radio access network platform. The companies said the software and hardware package is expected to be commercially available next year and could allow operators to roughly double the amount of data transmitted over existing spectrum by 2028. Huang described the effort as transforming the radio access network into a “planet-scale AI computer.” Nokia has framed the project as part of a strategy to expand software revenue and move into AI infrastructure beyond traditional telecom equipment.

Market data show Nvidia has gained about 11% year to date, while the PHLX Semiconductor Index rose roughly 72% earlier in the year. Nvidia’s market capitalization recently returned to a level above $5 trillion after falling below that mark earlier in the week.

Limited H200 exports, ongoing regulatory checks and congressional scrutiny coincided with the near-term share weakness despite analysts’ positive forecasts for AI-driven demand.