As the United States contemplates stricter trade barriers to prevent advanced chip technology from entering China, Nvidia, a leading chip manufacturer based in the U.S., is reportedly developing a compliant version of its new artificial intelligence chips for the Chinese market.
According to Reuters, Nvidia is collaborating with the local distributor Inspur to introduce and market the chip, provisionally named the “B20.” It is anticipated that the B20 will commence shipments in the second quarter of 2025.
Nvidia has previously designed three chips to align with U.S. export restrictions, including the H20, which the company reduced prices for due to sluggish sales in the face of competition from China’s Huawei. However, sales of the H20 have reportedly begun to rise, with projections indicating that Nvidia could sell over one million units of this chip in China this year, valued at approximately $12 billion, despite existing U.S. trade limitations. This expected volume outpaces Huawei’s anticipated sales of its Ascend 910B chip.
In light of potential new U.S. trade regulations, Jefferies analysts warned that Nvidia’s H20 chips might be further restricted. As part of their annual review of semiconductor export controls in October, analysts noted that it is quite possible the H20 may face a prohibition on sales to China. Such a ban could be instituted in various forms, including a product-specific ban, reductions in computing power caps, or limitations on memory capacity.
Additionally, analysts indicated that the U.S. could potentially broaden its export controls to cover chips supplied to neighboring countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, or extend restrictions to overseas Chinese companies, although the latter would pose more significant implementation challenges.