Nvidia Surges Over 3% in Overnight Trading, Reports Say US Approved Sale of NVDA H200 Chips to 10 Chinese Companies

TradingKey - During the U.S. overnight trading session on May 14 ET, Nvidia (NVDA.US) stock price surged sharply, with gains at one point exceeding 3%, hitting a session high of $233.22 during intraday trading.

[U.S. Approves Sale of Nvidia H200 Chips to Chinese Companies; Source: Reuters]

As of press time, the stock was up over 3% in overnight trading, hovering around $232.7. According to Reuters, the U.S. has signaled a relaxation of Nvidia chip export restrictions.

Reuters reported on May 14, citing three people familiar with the matter, that the U.S. Department of Commerce has approved approximately 10 Chinese companies to purchase Nvidia H200 AI chips. The list of approved entities includes tech giants such as Alibaba, ByteDance, Tencent, and JD.com, while distributors such as Lenovo and Foxconn were also included in the licensing scope.

Under the terms of the U.S. license, each approved customer can purchase up to 75,000 chips. The news comes at a critical time as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is in Beijing with a delegation for the U.S.-China summit, seeking to clear the final hurdles for H200 exports to China.

In December 2025, Donald Trump announced on social media that Nvidia would be allowed to export H200 chips to China, stating it would proceed "on the premise of ensuring national security." In January 2026, the U.S. Department of Commerce officially changed the H200 export license for China from a "presumption of denial" to a "case-by-case review."

According to three sources familiar with the matter, actual deliveries of H200 chips to China remain at zero to date. Although U.S. licenses have been issued, Chinese buyers have generally adopted a wait-and-see approach due to regulatory guidance from Beijing and have not yet moved forward with actual purchase orders.

Other reports indicate that companies like ByteDance have significantly shifted hundreds of billions in AI infrastructure budgets toward domestic chips such as Huawei's Ascend, with prices for Huawei chips recently rising by about 20%. This implies that even with U.S. Department of Commerce approval, it remains uncertain when the H200 will truly gain traction in the Chinese market.

Jensen Huang's trip to Beijing is intended to break this deadlock. According to Reuters, Huang was not initially on the list for the White House delegation to China but was added at the last minute following an invitation from President Trump.

In an interview, he publicly expressed hope that Trump and the Chinese leadership could use the talks in Beijing to deepen bilateral relations. This marks Huang's third visit to China within a year, reflecting his persistent efforts regarding access to the world's largest AI chip market.

Market analysis indicates that the potential demand for 1.5 million chips represents a revenue scale of approximately $30 billion. Ahead of Nvidia's upcoming earnings report, this signal of easing export controls has boosted investor confidence.

For Nvidia, its fiscal Q1 2026 earnings are scheduled for release on May 27. The market currently expects revenue of around $46 billion, with the data center business remaining the primary driver. However, the revenue contribution from the China market has shrunk significantly from approximately 13% prior to the export controls.

If the H200 chip can achieve large-scale deployment in Q2 and the second half of the year, it will provide a substantial incremental contribution to the full-year revenue outlook. In the short term, whether this news can continue to drive the stock price higher depends on whether Jensen Huang can secure substantive purchase orders in the coming days.