The H200 is not NVIDIA's newest chip. Even so, Chinese-made chips cannot match it yet. NVIDIA's software also works well with it, which helps firms train large AI models.
The US limited China's access to top NVIDIA chips and chip-making tools in 2022. After trade talks, Washington later let approved Chinese buyers purchase the H200. But Beijing set its own limits on imports.
The short supply has pushed up prices on the unofficial market. By the end of October, an eight-card H200 server cost over 6 million yuan, about USD 900,000. That is nearly three times the price a year ago. Servers with NVIDIA's newer Blackwell chips cost more than 20 million yuan.
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