(Reuters) – China has given approval to buy its AI startup DeepSeek Nvidia‘s (NVDA) H200 artificial intelligence chips with regulatory terms still being finalized, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing sources, that ByteDance, Alibaba (baby, 9988.HK) and Tencent (0700.HK, TCEHY) had received permission to purchase more than 400,000 H200 chips in total.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told reporters in Taipei on Thursday that his company had not received that information. He added that he believed China was still finalizing the license. Nvidia did not respond to a request for comment on DeepSeek’s approval.

China’s industry and commerce ministries have approved the four companies, but stipulated that they will impose conditions that are still being finalized, the sources said. Those conditions are being decided by China’s state planner, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), according to one of the people.

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Commerce and the NDRC did not respond to requests for comment.

DeepSeek, which shook up the global tech sector early last year with AI models that cost a fraction of those developed by US rivals such as OpenAI (OPAI.PVT), did not respond to a request for comment.

The H200, Nvidia’s second most powerful AI chip, has become a major flashpoint in US-China relations. Despite strong demand from Chinese companies and US approval for exports, Beijing’s reluctance to allow imports has been the main barrier to shipments.

The United States earlier this month formally cleared the way for Nvidia to sell the H200 in China, where the company is seeing strong appetite. However, the Chinese authorities have the final say on whether they would allow it to be shipped.

Any purchase of H200 chips by DeepSeek could attract scrutiny from US lawmakers. Reuters reported on Wednesday that a senior US lawmaker had alleged that Nvidia helped DeepSeek refine artificial intelligence models that were later used by the Chinese military, according to a letter sent to US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

DeepSeek is expected to launch its next-generation AI model ‌V4, with strong encryption capabilities, in mid-February, The Information reported earlier this month.

(Reporting by Fanny Potkin; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)