As the United States deliberates on implementing stricter trade restrictions aimed at preventing advanced chip technology from being exported to China, Nvidia, the U.S.-based chip manufacturer, is reportedly developing a modified version of its new artificial intelligence chips to align with these regulations.
Nvidia is said to be working on a version of its Blackwell AI chips specifically for the Chinese market, according to unnamed sources cited by Reuters. The company plans to collaborate with a local distributor, Inspur, to launch and market the chip, which is provisionally named the “B20,” in China.
Shipping for the B20 is anticipated to commence in the second quarter of 2025. Nvidia has refrained from offering any comments regarding this development.
The chipmaker currently has three chip models that are designed to meet U.S. export regulations, one of which is the H20. Nvidia has previously lowered the prices of the H20 due to lackluster sales, in a bid to compete with local rival Huawei. Despite initial concerns, sales of the H20 have begun to increase, with projections indicating that Nvidia will ship over one million H20 chips to China this year, potentially generating around $12 billion in revenue, as reported by the Financial Times, which cited data from SemiAnalysis. This sales figure is nearly double that of Huawei’s expected sales for its Ascend 910B chip.
However, analysts at Jeffries have raised concerns that Nvidia’s H20 chips could face additional risks under new U.S. trade regulations. They predict that in the upcoming annual review of semiconductor export policies in October, there is a strong possibility that the H20 will be prohibited from being sold to China. Such a ban could be implemented in various forms, including a product-specific ban, a reduction in the computing power limit, or placing restrictions on memory capacity.
Furthermore, the U.S. might expand its export limitations on chips sold to other countries in Asia, such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, or even extend the restrictions to overseas Chinese enterprises, although the latter would present greater challenges in terms of enforcement, according to analysts.