Nvidia Chips Stuck in Hong Kong as China goes Slow on Import Approvals

· About 600,000 of Nvidia's advanced artificial intelligence chips are stored in Hong Kong awaiting shipment to mainland China, two people familiar with the matter said, as Beijing withholds approval for large-scale imports despite demand from technology firms, Reuters news service reported. The size of the stockpile of H200 chips, which has not previously been reported, reflects Beijing's reluctance to increase reliance on US technology. At the same time, Chinese companies need Nvidia's advanced computing power to meet surging AI demand in the world's second-largest economy.

China has allowed some of the chips to enter the country in recent months, three people familiar with the matter said. Several major Chinese internet companies have each obtained about 10,000 H200 chips in the past few months, one of the people said. Three people said small quantities of chips had been shipped via intermediaries and indirect routes without specifying how many.

But Beijing has yet to approve large-volume imports into mainland China, the people said.

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Development and Reform Commission did not respond to requests for comment. Neither did Nvidia or Chinese tech companies Alibaba, ByteDance, DeepSeek and Tencent.

The H200 is not Nvidia's newest AI processor, but it has capabilities that Chinese alternatives have yet to match, making it useful for training AI models particularly when combined with Nvidia's software. US export controls since 2022 have sought to restrict China's access to advanced Nvidia chips and the equipment needed to make them. With authorised supply constrained, Chinese buyers have turned to intermediaries and indirect routes, pushing up prices in the unofficial market.

! Canada unveiled a budget on Thursday that calls for “economic independence” and says that while reducing its reliance on the United States will take time, :the shift is underway.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney's second budget since taking office last year was presented to parliament just two days after President Donald Trump suffered a sweeping midterm election rebuke.

While Democrats, who will take control of the US House and Senate next year, have already voiced a desire to ease Trump's trade war with Canada, Carney's budget affirms that the Canadian economy cannot remain dependent on the US market.

“Canada and the United States will not return to our old relationship,” the budget says, echoing Carney's message that pre-Trump tariff-free North American trade is not coming back.

The budget presented by Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne says Carney's government inherited an economy plagued by weak productivity growth in which “private sector investment lagged,” while “Canada remained excessively dependent on the United States.”

“Diversification will take time, given the scale and depth of Canada's economic relationship with the United States. But the shift is underway,” the budget says.