BENGALURU (Aug 19): Small batches of Nvidia's H200 chips, one of the company's most powerful artificial intelligence (AI) chips, have been allowed to enter mainland China, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing two people with knowledge of the matter.

ByteDance and Tencent have each received about 10,000 H200 processors in recent weeks, while a few other Chinese technology firms could soon secure similar shipments, the report said.

Although the US has cleared the companies to purchase up to 100,000 H200 chips each, Beijing wants them to keep the hardware outside mainland China to support the growth of domestic chipmakers, according to the Financial Times report.

The report added that Chinese regulators have told companies they can ship the processors to Hong Kong, which operates outside mainland China's customs border, and use them there.

Last month, a top US official told Congress that a small number of Nvidia H200 chips had been shipped to China.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report. Nvidia did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comments.

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