China allows Alibaba, others to prep Nvidia orders

Chinese officials have told the country’s largest tech firms, including Alibaba Group, they can prepare orders for Nvidia H200 AI chips, suggesting Beijing is close to formally approving imports of components essential to running artificial intelligence.

Regulators have recently granted in-principle approval for Alibaba, Tencent Holdings Ltd. and ByteDance Ltd. to move to the next stage of preparations for purchases, people familiar with the matter said. The companies are now cleared to discuss specifics such as the amounts they would require, the people said, asking to remain unidentified discussing private talks. Beijing will encourage companies to buy a certain amount of domestic chips as a condition for approval, according to the people, though no exact number has been set.