Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) shares are climbing Monday after reports surfaced that the AI chip giant plans to start shipping its powerful H200 chips to China early next year. It's the kind of news that matters when you've been locked out of one of the world's biggest markets.

What's Happening With China?

According to Reuters, Nvidia told Chinese clients it expects to begin shipping H200s in mid-February. These are the company's second-most powerful AI chips, and getting them into China has been complicated by U.S. export restrictions.

The first shipments will come from existing inventory, with sources saying initial orders would include 5,000 to 10,000 chip modules. That translates to roughly 40,000 to 80,000 individual H200 chips heading to Chinese customers. Nvidia reportedly plans to boost production capacity and open up new orders in the second quarter.

The China situation has been a persistent headwind for Nvidia. The U.S. government imposed chip restrictions that limited what the company could sell there. But earlier this month, President Donald Trump said the U.S. would allow Nvidia to export H200 chips to China with a 25% fee attached. That's not exactly friction-free trade, but it's better than a complete lockout.

The Bigger Picture

Despite the China challenges, Nvidia has been posting monster numbers. Last month's third-quarter results beat analyst estimates, with data center revenue jumping 66% year-over-year to $51.2 billion.

"Blackwell sales are off the charts, and cloud GPUs are sold out. Compute demand keeps accelerating and compounding across training and inference — each growing exponentially," CEO Jensen Huang said in November.

Technical Setup

Monday's move is getting a boost from broader tech strength. The Nasdaq is up 0.59% and the S&P 500 is rising 0.45%, creating a favorable environment for technology stocks.

The technical picture shows some interesting dynamics. Nvidia shares are trading 2.6% above the 20-day simple moving average but sitting 0.7% below the 50-day SMA, suggesting some short-term choppiness. Over the past year, shares have climbed 29.58%, pointing to a longer-term bullish trend.

The RSI stands at 49.22, which is neutral territory without strong momentum in either direction. The MACD is below its signal line, indicating some bearish pressure that could moderate Monday's early gains.

Key support sits at $168.50, while resistance is around $196. These levels will be important to watch, especially with the current technical setup showing mixed signals.

Price Action: Nvidia shares were up 1.83% at $184.29 at the time of publication on Monday.