--- title: "600,000 Nvidia H200s wait in Hong Kong while Cambricon misses its quarter" description: "Reuters has sized Beijing's hold for the first time: 600,000 Nvidia H200s parked in Hong Kong and gray-market servers at triple last year's price. Cambricon, the listed proxy for forced substitution, just missed its quarter because it cannot make chips fast enough." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Chips" published: 2026-11-06T14:15:29.132Z modified: 2026-11-06T14:15:29.132Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/600-000-nvidia-h200s-wait-in-hong-kong-while-cambricon-misses-its-quarter language: en keywords: "Nvidia, Cambricon, China, Export Controls, AI Chips, SMIC" --- # 600,000 Nvidia H200s wait in Hong Kong while Cambricon misses its quarter > Reuters has sized Beijing's hold for the first time: 600,000 Nvidia H200s parked in Hong Kong and gray-market servers at triple last year's price. Cambricon, the listed proxy for forced substitution, just missed its quarter because it cannot make chips fast enough. ## Beijing is metering chips Washington already cleared About 600,000 of [Nvidia](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/nvidia)'s H200 AI chips are sitting in Hong Kong warehouses awaiting import approval Beijing has not given, [Reuters reported on November 5, citing two people familiar with the matter](https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/general/nvidia-chips-pile-up-in-hong-kong-as-china-withholds-import-approval/ar-AA2gRtJP); the stockpile's size had not been reported before [1]. Washington licensed the sales, reviewing export applications case by case since January 13 [2]. Beijing lets through a trickle: several large Chinese internet firms have each received about 10,000 H200s in recent months, and total foreign-chip approvals may land below 200,000, a figure the US publication The Information reported in July [1]. [The Inference reported in September](https://theinference.org/article/beijing-is-not-reopening-nvidia-s-china-spigot-it-is-installing-a-meter) that Beijing was installing a meter on Nvidia's China sales rather than reopening a spigot. The meter now has readings. ## The gray market prices what the meter withholds An eight-chip H200 server was offered for more than 6 million yuan, about $900,000, in mainland China by end-October, roughly three times a year earlier, and servers built on Blackwell chips, which Washington bars outright, fetched more than 20 million yuan [1]. Nvidia's filing for the quarter ended July 26 books licensed H200 sales at under 1% of data-center revenue, a $0.4 billion charge on excess stock, and a company that calls itself effectively foreclosed from China's data-center market [2][3]. *Chart: **Gray-market H200 servers ask triple a year earlier; barred Blackwell kits ask 20 million yuan** Column chart of gray-market asking prices for eight-chip AI servers in mainland China: an H200 server at about 2 million yuan a year earlier, about 6 million yuan at end-October, and a barred Blackwell-based server above 20 million yuan* *Asking prices for eight-chip AI servers in mainland China, millions of yuan. The year-earlier H200 figure is implied by Reuters' roughly-three-times premium, reported end-October 2026. Source: Reuters, November 2026. [1]* ## The domestic substitute cannot ship fast enough The hold steers [Alibaba](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/alibaba), [ByteDance](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/bytedance), [Tencent](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/tencent) and [DeepSeek](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/deepseek) toward domestic silicon, especially inference, the work of running trained models, which is Cambricon's lane [3]. The Shanghai-listed designer posted 2025 revenue of RMB 6.497 billion, up 453%, and its first annual profit, RMB 2.059 billion, on a market value near RMB 483 billion [4]. The queue cannot hand over demand that cannot be manufactured: [third-quarter revenue of RMB 3.531 billion fell far short of the RMB 6.26 billion analysts expected](https://thenextweb.com/news/cambricon-q3-sales-miss-chip-supply), as a shortage of high-bandwidth memory and limited capacity at SMIC, China's top foundry, held back shipments [5]. Inventory climbed to RMB 11.665 billion by end-September [6], and the shares have roughly halved since their June record [5]. *Chart: **Domestic AI card shipments, China 2025: Huawei at 812,000, Cambricon and Kunlunxin tied at 116,000** Bar chart of 2025 China AI accelerator card shipments: Huawei Ascend about 812,000, Alibaba T-Head about 265,000, Cambricon and Kunlunxin about 116,000 each* *AI accelerator cards shipped in China in 2025, thousands of units. IDC shipment data relayed by 36Kr, November 2026. [4]* ## Cambricon's windfall rests on a reversible decision For Cambricon, [the import hold works as demand protection](https://theinference.org/article/cambricon-s-39-margin-is-a-toll-on-nvidia-s-exile-and-beijing-may-lift-it), and it is protection a customs office can withdraw. The same scarcity is repricing the bench behind it: Kunlunxin, [Baidu](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/baidu)'s controlled chip unit, carries [a rumored $50 billion Hong Kong IPO target](https://www.msn.com/ar-sa/money/other/baidu-rises-as-ai-unit-kunlunxin-eyes-50b-hong-kong-listing-report/ar-AA26Lwj7) against Baidu's own $26.2 billion market value, and prospective investors have reportedly been asked to buy chips worth three to seven times their intended share allocation; Baidu calls the rumors untrue [4][7]. [Huawei shipped about 812,000 domestic AI cards in 2025](https://theinference.org/article/huawei-declares-victory-over-nvidia-in-china-on-evidence-it-will-not-show), roughly seven times Cambricon [4]. The cloud detour is closing too: [Oracle's estimated $7 billion deal to give Tencent up to 100,000 advanced chips through Southeast Asian data centers collapsed under US pressure](https://semiengineering.com/chip-industry-week-in-review-163/) [8]. ## One customs decision sets Cambricon's demand line The number to watch is Cambricon's full-year target of at least RMB 13.5 billion in revenue [5][6]. The customs queue sets the demand; the memory shortage sets the supply. ## Takeaway Beijing is metering Nvidia chips Washington already cleared while the domestic substitute cannot manufacture fast enough; Cambricon's scarcity-driven windfall is real until the customs office changes its mind. ## Sources 1. [Reuters (via MSN), "Nvidia chips pile up in Hong Kong as China withholds import approval", 5 November 2026](https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/general/nvidia-chips-pile-up-in-hong-kong-as-china-withholds-import-approval/ar-AA2gRtJP) 2. [Unite.AI, "Roughly 600,000 NVIDIA H200s Idle in Hong Kong Amid Beijing's Import Hold", 5 November 2026](https://www.unite.ai/roughly-600-000-nvidia-h200s-idle-in-hong-kong-amid-beijings-import-hold/) 3. [The Next Web, "Nvidia H200 chips pile up in Hong Kong as Beijing holds back, Reuters says", 6 November 2026](https://thenextweb.com/news/nvidia-h200-chips-hong-kong-china-import-approval) 4. [36Kr (English), "Kunlunxin is not yet publicly listed, and its valuation is nearly twice that of Baidu", 6 November 2026](https://eu.36kr.com/en/p/4057819684574857) 5. [The Next Web, "AI chipmaker Cambricon's sales miss points to tight chip supply in China", 23 October 2026](https://thenextweb.com/news/cambricon-q3-sales-miss-chip-supply) 6. [Crypto Briefing, "Cambricon profit jumps 131% as revenue more than doubles in first nine months of 2026", 27 October 2026](https://cryptobriefing.com/cambricon-profit-jumps-revenue-doubles-2026/) 7. [Seeking Alpha (via MSN), "Baidu rises as AI unit Kunlunxin eyes $50B Hong Kong listing - report", 29 June 2026](https://www.msn.com/ar-sa/money/other/baidu-rises-as-ai-unit-kunlunxin-eyes-50b-hong-kong-listing-report/ar-AA26Lwj7) 8. [Semiconductor Engineering, "Chip Industry Week In Review" (Oracle-Tencent deal cancellation, citing the Financial Times), 6 November 2026](https://semiengineering.com/chip-industry-week-in-review-163/) --- 600,000 Nvidia H200s wait in Hong Kong while Cambricon misses its quarter — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/600-000-nvidia-h200s-wait-in-hong-kong-while-cambricon-misses-its-quarter