The United States approved the export of Nvidia's H200 chips to 10 Chinese companies including Alibaba and Tencent, but this is more like a calculated "loosening" rather than a true lifting of restrictions.

📝 U.S. motives: technological shackles and economic harvesting

This approval comes with very strict conditions. The U.S. not only requires up to 25% of sales revenue to be extracted but also sets a procurement cap of 75k units per company. Its core intention is not to abandon the blockade but to ensure that cutting-edge technologies like Blackwell remain restricted, while maintaining Chinese reliance on American platforms to sustain AI dominance.

🚧 Chinese stance: strategic determination for independence and control

Although the license is granted, Chinese companies have not actually made purchases. This "zero orders"冷淡 response stems from the Chinese government’s strategic priority to support domestic chips. As domestic chips like Huawei's Ascend 910C approach the performance of H200, and the market share of domestic AI chips has surpassed 55%, China is now confident in refusing to be dependent on "bottleneck" chips.

Overall, this marks a new stage in the US-China technological rivalry: one side attempts to use a "carrot" to gain ecological dominance, while the other views import restrictions as an opportunity to push industrial upgrading.