NEW YORK, Jan 8, 2026, 08:58 a.m. ET — Premarket
- Nvidia is seeking full upfront payment for H200 chip orders in China, tightening terms as approvals remain uncertain
- NVDA shares were up about 0.5% in premarket trading; chip peers were mixed
- Traders are watching China approvals, U.S. export licenses and Nvidia’s Feb. 25 earnings date
Nvidia (NVDA.O) shares rose 0.5% to $190.05 in premarket trading on Thursday, after a report said the company is tightening payment terms for Chinese buyers of its H200 artificial intelligence chips. The stock closed up 1% on Wednesday at $189.11. 1
The chip designer is requiring full upfront payment for H200 orders from Chinese customers and is barring cancellations, refunds and configuration changes, two people briefed on the matter told Reuters. The change matters because China demand is large but politically messy: Chinese firms have placed orders for more than 2 million H200 chips priced around $27,000 each — about $54 billion at list prices — while Nvidia has inventory of roughly 700,000 units, Reuters reported. A 25% fee demanded by the U.S. government on H200 China sales adds another variable, and Nvidia has already taken a $5.5 billion inventory write-down tied to earlier export curbs. 2
Executives have been careful about calling any turning point. At CES in Las Vegas, CEO Jensen Huang said he did not expect a formal announcement from Beijing and that any approval would show up as orders. CFO Colette Kress said the U.S. government was “working feverishly” on export license applications, but Nvidia still had no timeline. 3
Beijing, meanwhile, has asked some domestic tech firms to halt H200 orders while it weighs conditions that could include mandatory purchases of locally made AI chips, Reuters reported, citing The Information. “China is committed to basing its national development on its own strengths,” Chinese embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said, adding China wanted to keep dialogue to protect supply-chain stability. 4
The stock has not had a clean run at the highs. Nvidia’s 52-week range runs from $86.62 to $212.19, leaving shares roughly 10% below that peak as they trade around $190. 5
The China debate is landing as Nvidia is also trying to sell the next story. At CES, Nvidia unveiled its Vera Rubin platform and said systems built around it would roll out through partners in the second half of 2026, after its current Blackwell line. Rubin is aimed at cheaper “inference” — running trained AI models to generate outputs — as customers push to cut the cost per query. 6
For traders, the near-term question is basic: will approvals turn into shipments, and will buyers swallow the tighter payment terms and the U.S. fee without pushing back on price. Any signal on the pace of U.S. licensing, or on Beijing’s conditions for imports, could move NVDA during the regular session.
But the downside path is easy to sketch. China could slow orders by forcing a domestic-chip mix, Washington could tighten rules again, and full upfront payment shifts risk onto customers who may not want to park cash while policy is in flux.
