By Adam Clark
Nvidia was down early on Thursday amid mixed signals over how close the chip maker is to resuming exports of its hardware to China.
Nvidia shares were down 1.7% at $185.90 in early trading, while the S&P 500 index was down 0.1% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was 0.6% lower.
A major potential catalyst for the stock is a resumption of Chinese sales. President Donald Trump said last month he would allow shipments of the company's H200 chip to China, provided that Nvidia gives the U.S. government a 25% cut of sales.
China plans to approve some H200 imports as soon as this quarter with Alibaba Group and TikTok-parent ByteDance having privately indicated interest in ordering more than 200,000 units each, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said demand for the H200 is "very high" and that he doesn't expect issues from the Chinese government, in comments this week at the CES trade show in Las Vegas, formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show.
However, Stifel analysts said the company's tone remains "cautious" following a meeting with Nvidia CFO Colette Kress at CES.
"We would say the tone remained optimistic around China, but the statements remained prudently conservative, which we understand," Stifel's Ruben Roy wrote. "In our view, China is a swing factor to the positive for Nvidia, with sell-side and buy-side models not counting on these sales just yet."
Nvidia already has orders for more than two million H200 chips at a face value of $27,000 each, implying around $54 billion worth of revenue, Reuters previously reported. But authorities in Beijing have asked some technology companies to pause their orders while they decide how many domestically produced chips they should purchase and Nvidia is asking for full upfront payment amid that uncertainty, it reported Thursday.
Nvidia didn't immediately respond to a request for comment early on Thursday.
Among other chip makers, Advanced Micro Devices was down 1.6% and Broadcom was dropping 2.7% in morning trading. AMD is also aiming to export chips to China, while Broadcom works with ByteDance on custom AI chips.
Intel was down 0.9% after a 6.5% gain the previous day, amid online chatter suggesting significant server central-processing unit price hikes could be on the horizon.
Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 08, 2026 10:04 ET (15:04 GMT)
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