[News] China Reportedly Adds Huawei, Cambricon AI Chips to Procurement List Ahead of H200 Approval

While Washington approved NVIDIA’s H200 exports to China on December 8th, Beijing reportedly acted first. According to the Financial Times, China has, for the first time, added domestic AI chips to its official government procurement list, with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology approving processors from leading local players including Huawei and Cambricon.

The Financial Times notes that the move, aimed at boosting the use of homegrown semiconductors in China’s public sector, could generate billions of dollars in extra revenue for local chipmakers. Significantly, the report points out that the announcement came just ahead of Trump’s decision to ease U.S. export restrictions, permitting NVIDIA to ship H200 chips to “approved customers in China.”

Interestingly, the reason Trump greenlit H200 exports to China, as per Bloomberg, was based on an assessment that Huawei can rival NVIDIA more closely than previously thought. U.S. officials cited by the report concluded that by 2026, Huawei could produce several million Ascend 910C accelerators—designed to compete with NVIDIA’s chips—up sharply from June’s estimate of just 200,000 units this year.

China’s Push for Chip Independence

While China’s updated procurement list has not been publicly released, several government agencies and state-owned enterprises have already received the guidance, the Financial Times suggests, adding that this also marks the first time they have been given formal written instructions.

It is worth noting that in recent years, domestic microprocessors intended to replace AMD and Intel chips, along with operating systems designed to substitute Microsoft Windows, have been added to the government-approved procurement list, the report adds.

Beijing’s latest move underscores its confidence that domestic AI chips have matured enough to challenge U.S. counterparts—a rationale that mirrors the reasoning behind Trump’s greenlight for H200 exports—following years of focused investment in the sector.

According to TrendForce, China’s high-end AI chip market is projected to grow over 60% in 2026. Continued government support for domestic AI chip development is expected to benefit leading IC design firms, potentially boosting domestic chips’ market share to around 50%. Imported products such as NVIDIA’s H200 and AMD’s MI325 are projected to hold roughly 30%, TrendForce notes.

Read more

• [News] Trump Greenlights NVIDIA H200 Export to China: Chip Reportedly 6x H20 Power, with 25% Fee
• [News] Inside Huawei’s Patent Playbook: GPU Dominance and Sub-2nm Ambitions Under Sanctions

(Photo credit: Huawei)