NVIDIA is set to shake up the AI chip market in China with its new H200 AI chips, as reports suggest the company plans only a modest price increase over its predecessor, the H20. This strategic pricing is designed to make the H200 an attractive option, despite its status as a more mature offering.
Competitive Pricing Strategy for H200 AI Chips
Following the Trump administration’s decision to ease restrictions on exporting NVIDIA’s H200 AI chips to China, there was speculation about whether Beijing would opt for these newer chips. Despite initial doubts, it looks like NVIDIA is addressing potential concerns by setting a price that’s hard to resist. According to analyst Jukan, who cited Chinese sources, NVIDIA’s pricing strategy appears to be making a substantial impact, with China-bound H200 chips reportedly just 1.3 times costlier than the H20.
The H200 AI chips are being priced around $200,000 for an 8-chip cluster, comparable to the H20’s pricing, while offering a performance increase of over six times. This move aims to position the H200 as a compelling option in the Chinese market. The table below outlines the key differences between the H200 and H20:
| Category | NVIDIA H20 | NVIDIA H200 | Estimated Performance Improvement (H200 → H20) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Hopper (export-limited variant) | Hopper | — |
| Process Node | TSMC 4N | TSMC 4N | — |
| HBM Type | HBM3 | HBM3E | — |
| HBM Capacity | ~96 GB | 141 GB | ≈ +47% capacity |
| HBM Bandwidth | ~4.0 TB/s | 4.8 TB/s | ≈ +20% bandwidth |
| Intended Use Case | Inference-focused (restricted training) | Full training + inference + HPC | Functional uplift |
| Compute Throughput (FP8 / FP16) | Significantly reduced vs H100 (export-compliant) | Similar to H100-class, full Hopper capability | Substantial uplift, |
| PCIe / SXM Form Factors | PCIe versions only (typically) | PCIe + SXM | — |
| NVLink Support | Restricted / limited | Full NVLink | Major system-level uplift |
| Typical Deployment | China-compliant LLM inference | Global training & inference at scale | — |
NVIDIA’s Future Moves in China
It is anticipated that NVIDIA’s first shipment of H200 AI chips to China will occur by mid-February, pending US regulatory approval. Reports indicate that Chinese tech giants like Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance are eager to invest up to $31 billion in infrastructure, primarily focusing on hardware from NVIDIA and AMD. This development challenges the belief that China would not be interested in NVIDIA’s H200 AI chips.
As Chinese companies race to secure H200 and MI308 AI chips from NVIDIA and AMD, the importance of these components in training AI models in China becomes clear. While domestic alternatives like Huawei are making strides, they still face hurdles compared to Western solutions due to limited capacity and less developed software ecosystems.