China continues to develop artificial intelligence infrastructure based on NVIDIA chips, despite American export restrictions. According to an analysis of more than 150 procurement documents, investment plans, and contracts conducted by Reuters, the total value of the identified computing projects exceeds 23 billion yuan, or about $3.2 billion.

Against the backdrop of the resignation of NVIDIA co-founder Jensen Huang from the position of CEO and the strengthening of US controls, these projects may face delays, supply disruptions, or the need to switch to Chinese equivalents.

The identified initiatives cover both large regional computing centers and the repurposing of commercial facilities. This concerns infrastructure designed to use restricted American NVIDIA H100, H200, and H800 accelerators.

At the same time, $3.2 billion is not the cost of the chips themselves. The estimate includes planned investments, signed contracts, and already implemented projects, in particular expenses for buildings, electricity supply, and other infrastructure. Reuters also did not establish exactly how all the mentioned processors ended up in China.

Chinese demand persists despite US export restrictions

Documents indicate that NVIDIA technologies remain an important part of China's AI infrastructure, not only for the largest technology companies but also for universities, regional computing centers, and projects involving local authorities.

Among the examples is a facility in Gansu province in northwestern China, where thousands of NVIDIA chips were planned to be installed by the end of the year. At the same time, it is currently unknown whether this equipment was actually delivered.

Washington has restricted the export of advanced AI processors to China since 2022, and later extended controls to modified versions of chips, including the H800. In January, the administration of US President Donald Trump introduced individual review of licenses for the supply of H200 to certain Chinese customers subject to specified conditions.

At the same time, data on NVIDIA's share of the Chinese market differ depending on the methodology. Last year, Huang stated that the company's share had shrunk from 95% to zero. In its August report, NVIDIA effectively excluded data center revenues in China from its forecasts due to regulatory uncertainty.

However, an IDC estimate cited by Reuters in October indicated that in the first half of 2026, NVIDIA accounted for 34% of AI accelerator shipments in China. These figures measure different aspects of the market and do not prove that all the chips identified by Reuters were imported legally.

Huang's resignation increases uncertainty

A Reuters publication appeared the day after Jensen Huang left his position as CEO of NVIDIA amid a scandal surrounding his ties to Chinese businesswoman Alice Huang, whom American authorities suspect of possible connections to PRC intelligence. The situation has already drawn the attention of American lawmakers, who called for strengthened export controls over advanced chips.

Huang had previously advocated for easing restrictions and emphasized the importance of the Chinese market for NVIDIA. His departure could weaken the company's lobbying position in Washington amid calls for further tightening of controls.

Separately, Reuters draws attention to NVIDIA's Singapore cloud partner Megaspeed, linked to Alice Huang. The company denied illegally redirecting chips to China. NVIDIA's board of directors launched an independent investigation, stating it had no grounds to believe that corporate secrets or U.S. national security had been put at risk. There are no public findings of Huang violating export legislation.

At the same time, Reuters emphasizes that the Chinese projects identified during the analysis of the documents are not connected to Megaspeed or to the accusations surrounding Huang.

Analyst of the Jamestown Foundation Sunny Cheng believes that American control agencies should focus not only on the formal buyers of equipment, but also on the end users of computing power:

"Washington must stop focusing solely on who formally buys the chips and start finding out who ultimately uses the computing power — and for what purpose."

Previously we wrote that US Senators Elizabeth Warren and Jim Banks called on Congress to tighten restrictions on the export of advanced NVIDIA chips to China.