Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) shares edged higher by 1% following a scoop from The Information detailing a major policy shift in Beijing. Reports state that Chinese regulators are finally preparing to lift their local blockade, allowing the country’s premier artificial intelligence firms to buy Nvidia’s powerhouse H200 chips.

In a major strategic pivot, Chinese officials have reportedly informed tech titans—including Alibaba, ByteDance, and DeepSeek—that they may soon receive conditional approval to purchase the hardware. The decision marks a critical relief valve for a severe AI chip shortage gripping China’s tech sector.

While Washington and Beijing are loosening the reins, sources cited by The Information reveal that the approvals come with strict strings attached:

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  The Rationed Supply: Total approvals are expected to cap out at fewer than 200,000 chips—less than half of what Chinese tech firms originally requested earlier this year.

  
  


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  The "Training Only" Mandate: Beijing is dictating exactly how this computing power can be deployed. The H200s are strictly reserved for training complex AI models.

  
  


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  A Boost for Domestic Tech: For everyday inference tasks (running already-trained models), the Chinese government is requiring companies to prioritize domestic processors from local players like Huawei.

  
  

This scaled-down opening provides a massive financial and psychological win for Nvidia, whose revenue footprint in China had withered to near-zero amid tight regulatory standoffs.