CCDI; H200s; US-China; Zhong Caiwen; Short newsletter today

Apologies but a family member had a medical procedure today that was a bit more involved than expected and needs a lot of attention, so I cannot write the normal newsletter today.

I was struggling anyway as it is a bit of a quiet day. We are still waiting for the communique from the CCDI Plenum, and there is no clarification yet as to whether or not President Trump’s post yesterday threatening “any country doing business with the Islamic Republic of Iran will pay a Tariff of 25% on any and all business being done with the United States of America” applies to China as well. It probably does not, as the Trump Administration has been cowed by the rare earths controls, and adding more tariffs back on China would violate the spirit of the US-China understanding in South Korea.

The “will they or won’t they buy H200 chips from Nvidia” saga continues, with The Information reporting today that China Restricts Nvidia Chip Purchases to Special Circumstances:

The Chinese government this week told s…