First Nvidia H200 shipments reach China, ByteDance and Tencent take deliveries as Beijing loosens its import block — most licensed chips must stay in Hong Kong, which can't power them

ByteDance and Tencent each received 10,000 NVIDIA H200 chips from China, according to the Financial Times. The approval aims to boost local AI development, allowing these companies to train advanced AI models and compete globally. The US previously restricted H200 sales to China but allowed limited sales to approved firms in December 2025. Other Chinese companies may soon receive similar shipments.

SoftBank Group plans to issue $6.26B in seven-year corporate bonds, the largest retail bond sale by a Japanese company. Nvidia's 5-year credit default swap spread hit a new peak at 80.77 basis points, reflecting AI-linked credit stress. Oracle's CDS spread also surged, with S&P downgrading its debt. Investors are monitoring AI financing ahead of Nvidia's earnings report.

AI chip startup Etched, valued at $21B, is attracting Nvidia talent and investment. Founded by Harvard dropouts, it claims faster inference workloads and has secured $1B in orders from Jane Street. Nvidia has licensed Groq's tech for $17B, acknowledging competition. Etched's valuation surge reflects investor interest in alternatives to Nvidia's architecture.

Nvidia's H200 AI chips have reportedly reached China in small shipments, with ByteDance and Tencent each receiving about 10,000 processors. The U.S. has approved purchases of up to 100,000 chips per company, but Chinese regulators prefer the hardware be used in Hong Kong to support domestic chipmakers, according to the Financial Times.

Nvidia (NVDA) is partnering with OpenAI on a data center project in Ohio, initially guaranteeing under $120 billion for the first phase. The guarantee is a residual-value backstop, not direct financing. Nvidia also plans to invest up to $1.5 billion in SB Energy's upcoming IPO, which could raise at least $5 billion. The company is expanding its role in AI infrastructure financing, partnering with firms like BlackRock (BLK) and Goldman Sachs (GS) to target over $500 billion in capital.

Nvidia, SB Energy, and OpenAI announced an AI infrastructure deal valued at $500 billion, involving 'Land, power, and shell' (LPS) capacity. The project, backed by federal plans, aims to build 10GW of power generation for data centers by 2032. Nvidia's stock initially rose 1% but later fell. OpenAI reported $40 billion in annual revenue but faces high cash burn rates.