NEW YORK, December 31, 2025, 4:11 PM ET — After-hours
- Nvidia shares were down about 0.4% in late trade, after swinging between $190.51 and $186.60.
- Reuters reported Nvidia has approached TSMC to ramp output of its H200 AI chips as Chinese firms ordered more than 2 million units for 2026.
- Traders are watching China’s import decision on H200 shipments, CES headlines in early January and Nvidia’s next earnings date on Feb. 25.
Nvidia shares edged lower on Wednesday after a Reuters report said the chipmaker has approached Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co to boost production of its H200 artificial intelligence chips to meet resurgent demand from China. The stock was down 79.5 cents, or 0.4%, at $186.75 in late trade.
The report matters because China has been a swing market for Nvidia’s data-center chips, and any shift in export rules can quickly reshape demand and supply. It also underscored how tight the global pipeline remains for top-end AI processors as cloud and internet companies line up orders for 2026 hardware builds.
For investors, the immediate question is whether Nvidia can add supply without starving other regions — and whether regulators in Beijing will approve the imports at all. The Trump administration recently allowed exports of the H200 to China, Reuters reported, but the story said China has yet to greenlight shipments.
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 people familiar with the matter told Reuters. A third source said Nvidia asked TSMC to begin production of additional chips, with work expected to start in the second quarter of 2026.
The H200 is a graphics processing unit (GPU) — a specialized chip used to train and run AI models — based on Nvidia’s prior-generation “Hopper” architecture, Reuters reported. Nvidia has been focused on ramping its newer “Blackwell” platform and upcoming “Rubin” line, making the renewed focus on H200 supply a notable pivot. Reuters
Sources told Reuters Nvidia has decided which H200 variants it will offer to Chinese clients and has priced them around $27,000 per chip. An eight-chip module was expected to cost about 1.5 million yuan, the sources said, and Chinese firms viewed the pricing as attractive given the performance uplift over the H20 — a cut-down chip Nvidia designed for China that later became unavailable, the story said.
ByteDance plans to spend about 100 billion yuan ($14.29 billion) on Nvidia AI chips in 2026 — up from roughly 85 billion yuan in 2025 — if Nvidia is allowed to sell its H200 GPUs in China, the South China Morning Post reported. Reuters said it could not immediately verify the report.
Nvidia, responding to Reuters, said it continuously manages its supply chain and said licensed sales of the H200 to authorised customers in China would not affect its ability to supply customers in the United States. The company also said blocking all U.S. exports would only benefit foreign competition, Reuters reported.
The China angle comes as Nvidia also draws attention for potential dealmaking. On Tuesday, Reuters reported Nvidia was in advanced talks to buy Israel-based AI startup AI21 Labs for between $2 billion and $3 billion, citing Israeli financial daily Calcalist.
Nvidia declined to comment on the report, while AI21 was not immediately available for comment, Reuters said. Calcalist said Nvidia’s primary interest appeared to be AI21’s roughly 200-person workforce; Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has called Israel the company’s “second home,” Reuters reported. Reuters
The broader tape was cautious into year-end, with Wall Street’s main indexes inching lower in holiday-thin trading, Reuters reported. Tech stocks slipped slightly on the day, and markets are closed on Thursday for New Year’s Day.
Competitive pressure sits in the background. Nvidia has warned that China is highly competitive with rapidly growing local chip suppliers, Reuters reported, while U.S. rivals such as AMD and Intel are also using CES to showcase their roadmaps.
Before the next regular session on Friday, investors are likely to focus on any signals from Beijing on whether H200 imports will be approved and on how quickly Nvidia can translate Chinese orders into revenue without squeezing supply elsewhere. Traders also cited $190.51 — Wednesday’s high — as a near-term level to clear, with $186.60 as an immediate support marker after the day’s low.
The next headline risk may come quickly anyway. Nvidia is scheduled to host “NVIDIA Live at CES 2026” with CEO Jensen Huang on January 5, according to the company’s CES schedule, and the company’s next earnings report is listed for Feb. 25 on Yahoo Finance’s earnings calendar. nvidia.com+1
