New York, January 8, 2026, 06:21 EST — Premarket
- NVDA was up about 1% before the open after tighter China payment terms for H200 AI chips surfaced
- Beijing has asked some firms to pause H200 orders as it weighs access rules and domestic-chip requirements
- Investors are watching U.S. jobs data next, with Nvidia’s Feb. 25 results looming
Nvidia shares rose about 1% to $189.11 in premarket trading on Thursday after the chip designer demanded full upfront payment from Chinese customers for its H200 artificial-intelligence (AI) chips, two people briefed on the matter said. Chinese technology companies have placed orders for more than 2 million H200 chips priced at around $27,000 each, outstripping Nvidia’s inventory of 700,000 units, the people said. Domestic chips such as Huawei’s Ascend 910C still lag Nvidia’s H200 for large-scale training of advanced AI models, they added. 1
Beijing has asked some Chinese tech companies to halt H200 orders this week, The Information reported, as officials weigh whether to allow access to Nvidia’s high-performance chips and how much domestic AI hardware buyers must take alongside them. “China is committed to basing its national development on its own strengths,” said Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in the United States. Late last year, the Trump administration approved exports of the H200 to China on condition Nvidia pays a 25% revenue-sharing tax to the U.S. government. 2
Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang said the customer demand was “quite high” and the company had “fired up our supply chain,” while Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress said the U.S. government was “working feverishly” on export licenses — permits needed to ship the chips. Kress said Nvidia would “wait and see” on approvals, and Huang said he was “fully expecting a really giant year” with Taiwan’s TSMC, which makes most of the company’s chips. Huang said he did not expect a formal declaration from Beijing, adding: “If the purchase orders come, it’s because they’re able to place purchase orders.” 3
In regular trading on Wednesday, Nvidia rose about 1% as investors moved back into AI-related stocks, helping the Nasdaq edge higher even as the S&P 500 and Dow closed lower. U.S. stock futures dipped early Thursday ahead of Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report, and Longbow Asset Management CEO Jake Dollarhide said some investors were still content to “buy tech and forget about it.” 4
The full-upfront requirement shifts the risk to customers, who must park capital without certainty that regulators will clear imports or that they can deploy the chips as planned.
But the China story cuts both ways. A tougher stance from Beijing or a fresh turn in U.S. export policy could stall shipments and leave buyers unwilling to tie up cash, while rivals and in-house chips from big customers keep pressure on demand and pricing.
Traders will be watching Thursday’s weekly jobless claims and Friday’s U.S. payrolls report for clues on rates, with megacap tech still sensitive to shifts in yields. On Nvidia, the near-term question is whether Beijing clears H200 imports and whether the first batch reaches China before the Lunar New Year holiday in mid-February.
Nvidia is scheduled to report fourth-quarter fiscal 2026 results on Feb. 25, a catalyst investors expect to sharpen the market’s view on data-center demand and the China pipeline. 5
