Nvidia does not require customers to make upfront payments for its H200 artificial intelligence chips, a spokesperson for the U.S. chipmaker said in a statement on Tuesday.

The company said it “would never require customers to pay for products they do not receive,” responding to a Reuters report on January8 that said Nvidia had imposed unusually stringent terms on Chinese buyers, including full prepayment, for access to its AI processors.

One source said that Nvidia’s standard terms for Chinese clients have in the past included advance payment requirements, although customers were sometimes allowed to make a deposit rather than pay the full amount upfront.

For the H200 in particular, however, the company has been stricter in enforcing its conditions because of uncertainty over whether Chinese regulators would approve the shipments, the source said.

Such a payment structure, if applied, would shift financial risk from Nvidia to its customers, forcing them to commit capital without certainty that Beijing will clear the imports or that they will be able to deploy the chips as planned.