BABA
NVDA
A tiny crack in the China door
Nvidia may be getting a sliver of good news from Beijing. Reuters says China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has asked major domestic companies to spell out whether they plan to buy Nvidia’s RTX PRO 5500 processors, and some industry folks think the government is leaning toward approving the purchases.
That’s not exactly a full-throated “come on in.” But for Nvidia, even a hint of access matters, because China has been a tug-of-war between Washington’s export controls and Beijing’s own restrictions on U.S. imports.
Why investors are paying attention
This isn’t about Nvidia suddenly re-running the growth playbook in China. The company itself says its business there remains boxed in by both sides of the trade fence. Still, the headlines can move the stock because China is too big to ignore — and Nvidia’s Form 10-Q showed China/Hong Kong revenue fell to $4.55 billion in the first quarter from $9.66 billion a year earlier.
The long game
There’s also a geopolitical subplot here that reads like a business thriller with worse dialogue:
- The Trump administration has already cleared Nvidia to ship H200 chips to approved Chinese customers.
- Those are older chips, not the shiny Blackwell generation.
- Beijing may still want access to certain Nvidia hardware it views as useful and, crucially, not squarely blocked by U.S. rules.
Big picture: if China opens even a narrow lane for Nvidia, that’s not a victory parade — but it is a reminder that the world’s most important chip company still has room to maneuver, even in a trade environment that loves drama.