NEW YORK, January 1, 2026, 09:33 ET — Market closed
- Nvidia shares last closed down about 0.5% at $186.50 as U.S. markets stay shut for New Year’s Day.
- Reuters reported Nvidia has approached TSMC about ramping H200 output after Chinese firms ordered more than 2 million chips for 2026.
- Traders are watching China’s import approvals and CEO Jensen Huang’s CES appearance on Jan. 5 for fresh demand and supply signals.
Nvidia has approached Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co about boosting production of its H200 artificial-intelligence chips as demand from Chinese technology companies surges, sources told Reuters. Nvidia shares last closed down about 0.5% at $186.50.
The report matters now because it puts China back in focus as a swing market for Nvidia’s 2026 chip shipments. Beijing has yet to greenlight any H200 imports, even as the Trump administration recently allowed exports of the chip to China under a licensing framework, Reuters said.
It also underscores a supply squeeze risk that can move the stock quickly: Nvidia is trying to balance China orders against constrained capacity elsewhere while it ramps newer AI platforms. Any reallocation of manufacturing or packaging capacity can ripple into delivery timelines that investors track quarter by quarter.
Chinese technology companies have placed orders for more than 2 million H200 chips for 2026, while Nvidia holds about 700,000 units in stock, two sources told Reuters. Nvidia has asked TSMC to begin work on expanded output in the second quarter of 2026, another source said.
The H200 is a graphics processing unit, or GPU, the workhorse chip used to train and run AI models. It is part of Nvidia’s previous-generation Hopper line and uses TSMC’s 4-nanometer manufacturing process, Reuters reported.
Sources said Nvidia has indicated pricing around $27,000 per chip, with an eight-chip module expected to cost about 1.5 million yuan. The H200 delivers roughly six times the performance of the H20 — a downgraded China-focused chip that is no longer available to ship into the country — and was priced at about a 15% discount to grey-market, or unofficial, resellers, Reuters said.
ByteDance planned to spend about 100 billion yuan on Nvidia chips in 2026 if China allows H200 sales, the South China Morning Post reported, according to Reuters. Chinese officials have also weighed conditions such as bundling each H200 purchase with a ratio of domestically produced chips, Reuters reported.
Nvidia said licensed sales of the H200 to authorized customers in China would not affect its ability to supply U.S. customers, a spokesperson told Reuters, while warning that blocking U.S. exports would strengthen foreign competition. TSMC declined to comment, Reuters said.
The backdrop for the stock is a softer year-end tape for megacap tech: Wall Street ended the final session of 2025 lower, with the S&P 500 down 0.74% and the Nasdaq off 0.76%, Reuters reported.
Export policy remains part of the overhang for the supply chain. U.S. officials granted TSMC an annual license to import U.S. chipmaking tools into its China plant as regulators try to manage controls without disrupting global semiconductor supply lines, Reuters reported.
Deal chatter is also on the radar: Nvidia is in advanced talks to buy Israel’s AI21 Labs for as much as $3 billion, the Calcalist financial daily reported, according to Reuters. CEO Jensen Huang has described Israel as the company’s “second home,” Reuters said. Reuters
Before markets reopen on Friday, traders will keep one eye on technical levels after the stock traded between $186.26 and $190.51 in the last session. Attention also turns to CES, where Nvidia is scheduled for a Jan. 5 press conference featuring Huang, according to the event listing.
Macro catalysts arrive quickly in January and can reset rate expectations that feed into growth-stock valuations: the U.S. jobs report for December is scheduled for Jan. 9 and the December CPI inflation report for Jan. 13, while the Federal Reserve’s next policy meeting is Jan. 27–28. Nvidia’s next major company catalyst is its Feb. 25 earnings report; investors will be listening for updates on China approvals, supply capacity and margins as it scales next-generation AI chips.
