Even Limited Sales of High-End Chips to Chinese Buyers Pose a Serious…

The US Commerce Department confirmed that Chinese firms have purchased limited quantities of Nvidia H200 AI chips following a December 2025 policy shift, with the government claiming national-security screening and inspection requirements were applied. The sales enable Chinese military-linked companies like Alibaba and ByteDance to close the computing gap with US models, supplementing ongoing smuggling operations. If you make anything that goes into an AI chip—optics, power delivery, packaging materials—you now have two conflicting buyers: the US government is tightening controls on what leaves the country, whilst chip makers are facing export permits and revenue-share deals that change unit economics. The regulatory ground is moving weekly; your supply agreements and pricing models need to move faster.