Chinese companies including ByteDance, Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings have placed at least $16 billion in orders for Nvidia’s H20 server chips for running artificial intelligence in the first three months of the year, ahead of a potential U.S. ban on sales of the chip in China, according to two people with direct knowledge of the transactions.

The orders represent a sizable windfall for Nvidia—but only if it can deliver the chips in advance of the new restrictions. Nvidia generated $17 billion from sales in China in the 12 months that ended Jan. 26, 13% of its total revenue.