** Nvidia NVDA.O shares rise 2.6% to $231.65 premarket after report US cleared H200 chip sales to ~10 Chinese firms, though no deliveries have been made yet

** Approved buyers reportedly include Alibaba 9988.HK, Tencent 0700.HK and ByteDance; deals, however, have stalled amid Beijing's push to develop its own domestic chip industry, sources say

** NVDA is trading in record-high territory, on track to surpass its all-time intraday high of $227.84 reached on May 13

** Stock has surged ~21.1% YTD, outperforming a 13.6% rise in the Nasdaq .IXIC over the same period