Nvidia Surges Over 3% in Overnight Trading, Report Says US Approves Sale of NVDA H200 Chips to 10 Chinese Companies

TradingKey - During the overnight trading session of U.S. stocks on May 14, Eastern Time, Nvidia (NVDA.US) shares surged sharply, with gains once exceeding 3%, hitting an intraday session high of $233.22.

[U.S. approves sale of Nvidia H200 chips to Chinese companies, Source: Reuters]

As of press time, the stock's overnight gain has exceeded 3%, trading near $232.7. According to Reuters, the U.S. has signaled a loosening of restrictions on Nvidia's chip exports.

Reuters reported on May 14, citing three people familiar with the matter, that the U.S. Department of Commerce has approved about 10 Chinese companies to purchase Nvidia's H200 AI chips. The approved list includes tech giants such as Alibaba, ByteDance, Tencent, and JD.com, with distributors like Lenovo and Foxconn 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 release of this news coincides with a critical window as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is in Beijing as part of a delegation for the U.S.-China summit, seeking to clear the final hurdles for H200 exports to China.

In December 2025, 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 export license for H200 to China from "presumption of denial" to "case-by-case review."

According to three people familiar with the matter, actual deliveries of H200 chips to China remain at zero to date. Despite the U.S. license being granted, Chinese buyers have generally opted for a wait-and-see approach due to regulatory guidance from Beijing and have yet to move 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 like Huawei's Ascend, with the price of Huawei chips recently rising by about 20%. This means that even if the U.S. Department of Commerce approves sales eligibility, it remains uncertain when the H200 will actually land in the Chinese market.

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

In an interview, he publicly expressed hope that Trump and Chinese leaders could use the talks in Beijing to deepen bilateral relations. This is already Huang's third visit to China within a year; he has never stopped his efforts regarding access to the world's largest AI chip market.

Market analysis points out that the potential demand for 1.5 million chips corresponds to a revenue scale of approximately $30 billion. Ahead of Nvidia's upcoming earnings release, this signal of export easing has provided a boost to investor confidence.

For Nvidia, the Q1 FY2026 earnings report will be released on May 20. The market currently expects revenue of about $46 billion, with the data center business remaining the absolute mainstay. However, the revenue contribution from the Chinese market has shrunk significantly from about 13% before the export controls.

If the H200 chips can achieve large-scale deployment in Q2 and the second half of the year, they will make a significant 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 bring back substantive purchase orders in the coming days.