China has approved the import of Nvidia's H200 artificial intelligence chips for three of its largest technology companies: ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent.

According to Reuters, the three companies received approval to purchase more than 400,000 H200 chips in total. This marks a shift in Beijing's stance after weeks of holding up shipments despite US export clearance.

The move follows Beijing's temporary hold on H200 shipments earlier this month after Washington cleared exports on January 13. Chinese customs authorities had told agents that the H200 chips were not permitted to enter China.

The H200, Nvidia's second most powerful AI chip after the B200, delivers roughly six times the performance of the company's H20 chip, which was previously the most capable chip Nvidia could sell to China. While Chinese companies such as Huawei now have products that rival the H20's performance, they still lag far behind the H200.