New York, Jan 9, 2026, 10:32 (EST) — Regular session
Nvidia shares slipped 0.2% to $184.61 in morning trading on Friday after Reuters reported the AI-chip leader is demanding full upfront payment from Chinese buyers for its H200 graphics processing units, or GPUs. The new terms leave customers no option to cancel, seek refunds or change configurations once orders are placed, two people briefed on the matter told Reuters. Chinese firms have placed orders for more than 2 million H200s priced around $27,000 each, the report said, outstripping Nvidia’s inventory of about 700,000 chips.
The move puts the spotlight back on China just as investors try to pin down how much incremental growth Nvidia can squeeze from overseas demand without tripping export controls. President Donald Trump said in December the United States would allow H200 shipments to China and collect a 25% fee on those sales.
Rates are part of the mix too. Wall Street edged higher on Friday after a weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs report, and Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management, called it “difficult to argue” the labour market is collapsing. Reuters
Supply-chain signals stayed strong. Taiwan said 2025 exports hit a record, driven by demand linked to AI and high-performance computing, and its finance ministry projected January exports would grow 50% to 56% from a year earlier.
At CES in Las Vegas, Nvidia also rolled out a next-generation platform for autonomous driving that will underpin a robotaxi alliance announced by Lucid, Nuro and Uber, Reuters reported. Ozgur Tohumcu, a general manager at Amazon Web Services, called generative AI a “big accelerant” for development, saying it can help teams validate systems with fewer resources. Reuters
Other AI-linked chip names diverged. AMD was down 0.2% while Broadcom rose 2.3%.
Still, the China trade cuts both ways: approvals can stall, and policy can flip quickly on either side of the Pacific. Nvidia said in April 2025 it expected a $5.5 billion charge after U.S. restrictions limited exports of its China-focused H20 AI chip.
The next hard checkpoint is earnings. Nvidia is scheduled to report fourth-quarter fiscal 2026 results on Feb. 25, and investors will scan the commentary for any update on China shipments and supply.
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