Nvidia says no upfront payment needed for its H200 chips amid US-China tech tensions – Firstpost

Nvidia remarked it does not seek upfront payment for H200 chips, after Reuters reported that it demands full payment from Chinese buyers, a clarification that comes amid deepening US-China tech tensions and global uncertainty over AI supply chains.

“Would never require customers to pay for products they do not receive”, a spokesperson for Nvidia stated in a statement to Reuters on Tuesday.

On 8 January, Reuters reported that the US chipmaker has imposed unusually stringent terms requiring full payment for orders with no options to cancel, ask for refunds or change configurations after placement, adding that in special circumstances, clients may provide commercial insurance or asset collateral as an alternative to cash payment.

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Navigating uncertainty in US-China relations

The development underscore Nvidia’s challenge of tapping China’s soaring demand while steering through regulatory uncertainty on both sides of the Pacific.

Nvidia has been burned in the past. Last year, it wrote down $5.5 billion in inventory after the Trump administration abruptly banned it from selling the H20 chip to China, previously the most powerful product it was able to offer there.

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The Biden administration had banned advanced AI chip exports to China, but President Donald Trump reversed that policy last month, allowing H200 sales with a 25 per cent fee to be paid to the US government.

While the US has reversed that decision, China has since banned H20 shipments.

Beijing in recent days asked some Chinese tech companies to temporarily pause their H200 chip orders as regulators are still deciding how many domestically produced chips each customer will need to buy alongside each H200 order, Reuters reported on January 8.

With inputs from agencies

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