AI Daily: China to approve imports of Nvidia H200 chips this quarter

Catch up on the top artificial intelligence news and commentary by Wall Street analysts on publicly traded companies in the space with this daily recap compiled by The Fly.

H200 CHIPS IMPORTS: China intends to approve imports of Nvidia’s (NVDA) H200 chips as soon as this quarter, allowing local companies to buy the chip from Nvidia for select commercial use, Bloomberg News reports, citing people familiar with the matter. The chip will not be allowed to be used by the military, sensitive government agencies, critical infrastructure, and state-owned enterprises, the sources added.

UPFRONT PAYMENT: Nvidia requires full upfront payment from Chinese customers looking to buy H200 AI chips, Reuters reports, citing two people briefed on the matter. Nvidia has imposed stringent terms on orders for the chips, requiring full payment with no options to cancel, ask for refunds, or make configuration changes after placing the order, sources added.

AI TECH STACK: Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Alphabet (GOOGL) to Overweight from Neutral with a price target of $370, up from $310. The firm believes Alphabet has the “strongest footprint across several layers in the AI tech stack.” The company’s decade-long investments have enabled “deep competitive moats,” Cantor tells investors in a research note. The fir believes that with regulatory headwinds easing, Alphabet should see benefits by leveraging its distribution in consumer and enterprise as AI transitions “from the Frenzy to the Synergy phase.”

LAWSUIT: A U.S. judge has ruled that Elon Musk’s lawsuit alleging OpenAI violated its nonprofit founding mission can proceed to a jury trial, citing sufficient disputed facts and evidence of assurances about maintaining the original structure, Reuters’ Mike Scarcella reports. The trial is scheduled for March, with a written order forthcoming on OpenAI’s motion to dismiss.

CHATGPT HEALTH: OpenAI has unveiled ChatGPT Health, which lets users import medical records and other data from health apps into ChatGPT, Ina Fried of Axios reports. Information shared in the health tab won’t be used in other types of chats and that people can easily view and delete their health-related “memories,” according to the report, which adds that a small group will test the feature first.

AGENTIC AI SOLUTIONS: Microsoft (MSFT) announced agentic AI solutions designed to “bring intelligent automation to every part of the retail business. These new capabilities help retailers move faster, serve shoppers with greater relevance, and operate with resilience and efficiency, delivering a modern foundation for growth in a highly competitive market,” the company said. “The retailers that thrive will be the ones that unify their business with intelligence that reaches every corner of the value chain,” said Kathleen Mitford, Corporate Vice President of Global Industry at Microsoft. “With Microsoft’s agentic AI, retailers can automate what slows them down and amplify what sets them apart, enabling faster decisions and stronger customer relationships while building operations ready for whatever comes next.” Copilot Checkout will enable merchants to reach shoppers as they complete purchases discovered directly within Copilot without being redirected to external sites.

Shopify (SHOP) merchants will automatically be enrolled in Copilot Checkout following an opt-out window. Microsoft is also introducing two solutions that bring agentic commerce to life across the digital experiences retailers own: Brand Agents, now available for merchants on the Shopify platform, and the personalized shopping agent template in Copilot Studio. Both enable personalized, conversational shopping experiences, helping retailers guide customers, boost engagement and drive conversions. Microsoft is also launching in public preview the catalog enrichment agent template in Copilot Studio, an intelligent assistant that extracts product attributes from images, enriches them with social insights, and automates catalog tasks such as product onboarding, categorization and error resolution.

COLLABORATION: Fiserv (FISV) announced a strategic collaboration with Microsoft to embed AI into its development platforms and empower its global workforce. Fiserv will deploy Microsoft 365 Copilot across its workforce and expand its use of Microsoft Foundry to build and manage AI applications. The company said this initiative builds on its existing use of Microsoft Foundry and the deployment of GitHub Copilot to over 8,000 software engineers.