As the United States considers implementing stricter trade restrictions to prevent advanced chip technology from being sent to China, Nvidia, a U.S.-based chip manufacturer, is reportedly developing a version of its new artificial intelligence chips designed to meet these regulations.
According to sources familiar with the matter, Nvidia is creating a variant of its Blackwell AI chips for the Chinese market. The company plans to collaborate with a local distribution partner, Inspur, to market and distribute the chip, which is tentatively named the “B20,” in China.
The B20 is anticipated to begin shipping in the second quarter of 2025, as per reports. Nvidia has not provided any comments on this development.
Nvidia has already designed three chips that align with U.S. export controls, including the H20, which the company reduced prices for due to lackluster sales and competition from domestic rival Huawei. Nonetheless, sales of the H20 are reportedly increasing, with expectations that Nvidia will sell over one million H20 chips in China this year, amounting to approximately $12 billion, despite ongoing U.S. trade restrictions. This figure is nearly double the sales predictions for Huawei’s Ascend 910B chip, according to data from SemiAnalysis.
However, Jefferies analysts have raised concerns that Nvidia’s H20 chips could face further risks due to potential additional U.S. trade regulations. In their annual review of semiconductor export controls in October, it is likely that the H20 could be prohibited from being sold to China. Possible methods for the ban could include specific product restrictions, lowering the allowed computing power, or imposing limits on memory capacity.
Furthermore, the United States may consider extending chip export controls to other countries in the region, such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, or may apply these controls to overseas Chinese firms, though the latter would be more challenging to enforce, according to analysts.