Nvidia hasn’t made a cent in China lately – and might not need to given $120 billion profit

Steven

Nvidia hasn’t made a cent in China lately – and might not need to given $120 billion profit

Summary

Nvidia is still waiting for Beijing to approve imports of its H200 AI accelerator despite a US decision to allow sales (with a 25% revenue-sharing condition). The company reports no Chinese datacentre revenue yet and has excluded China from its Q1 2027 revenue forecast. Meanwhile Nvidia posted spectacular results: Q4 profits of $42.96bn on $68.12bn revenue, datacentre revenue of $62.3bn, and a full fiscal-year profit of $120bn on $215.93bn revenue. CEO Jensen Huang also discussed the potential and challenges of orbital datacentres, though he admitted current economics are unfavourable.

Key Points

  • Nvidia has received US approval for some H200 exports but Beijing has not authorised imports, so no China datacentre revenue has materialised.
  • CFO Colette Kress says Q1 2027 guidance assumes zero Chinese datacentre revenue.
  • The US allowed H200 sales under a deal taking 25% of revenue; practical sales to China remain blocked by Chinese authorities.
  • Nvidia delivered Q4 results with $42.96bn profit on $68.12bn revenue; datacentre sales were $62.3bn — over 90% of the quarter’s revenue.
  • For fiscal 2026 Nvidia reported a $120bn profit on $215.93bn revenue, highlighting its dominance even without China.
  • Jensen Huang sees imaging and other workloads as promising for space-based GPUs, but heat dissipation, weight and economics are major hurdles.
  • Industry debate: some analysts call orbital datacentres a bubble; others (Google, Bezos, Musk) are exploring or backing the idea.

Context and Relevance

This is a must-watch story for anyone tracking the global AI supply chain, semiconductor geopolitics and datacentre investment trends. Nvidia’s results underscore how concentrated AI infrastructure demand is in hyperscalers and datacentres — and that extraordinary profits can blunt the immediate impact of being shut out of a major market like China.

The stalled H200 situation illustrates the growing friction between export policy, national security concerns and commercial AI demand. It also highlights a strategic risk: if China’s domestic players accelerate, global AI infrastructure dynamics could shift over time, which Nvidia itself warns about.

Why should I read this?

Short version: Nvidia is printing eye-watering profits, and that gives it breathing room even if China stays closed off. If you care about cloud suppliers, AI hardware supply chains, or which companies really drive AI spending — read this. We’ve done the heavy lifting: key numbers, the China snag, and what executives are saying about far-out options like datacentres in orbit.

Source

Source: https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2026/02/26/nvidia_q4_2026/