China Adds Domestic AI Chips to Official Procurement List, Accelerating Shift Away From Nvidia
After U.S. export controls restricted China’s access to advanced AI chips from Nvidia and other suppliers, Beijing expanded its Xinchuang domestic-substitution initiative from operating systems and servers to AI computing power. Official certification can serve as a basis for procurement by government agencies and state-owned enterprises, with implications for the data-center supply chain. Morgan Stanley estimates that China’s AI chip market will reach $67 billion in 2030, with domestic suppliers able to meet about 76% of demand.
On May 26, 2026, the China Information Technology Security Evaluation Center and the National Secrecy Science and Technology Evaluation Center issued Announcement No. 2, designating nine AI training and inference chips as Level I secure and reliable products for the first time. The certifications are valid for three years. The list includes Huawei’s Ascend 310 and 910, Alibaba T-Head’s Zhenwu M530 and M890, and one chip each from Biren Technology, Hygon, Iluvatar CoreX, MetaX and Moore Threads, covering seven vendors in total.
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The history behind this eventChina Plans Limited Easing of Nvidia AI Chip Purchase Ban
Nvidia’s advanced AI chip exports to China have long been restricted amid the U.S.-China technology conflict. Beijing previously told domestic companies to suspend purchases of Nvidia products, citing cybersecurity concerns and support for homegrown chips, leaving Chinese AI companies facing a shortage of computing power. After the Trump administration eased export controls about six months ago and approved the China-specific H200 chip, attention shifted to whether Beijing would allow domestic companies to import it. The case has therefore become a key gauge of U.S.-China technology competition and the pace of China’s AI development.
The latest reports indicate that Beijing plans to allow domestic companies including Alibaba, ByteDance and DeepSeek to buy limited quantities of H200 chips, while the U.S. government has again given the green light to Chinese companies’ purchase applications. The news sent Nvidia shares up more than 4% in a single session. However, the number of chips ultimately approved could fall short of half of China’s demand, according to market estimates. The H200 also trails Nvidia’s latest-generation products technologically, meaning the Chinese technology sector’s computing-power shortfall is unlikely to be fully alleviated in the near term.
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