As the U.S. examines stricter trade restrictions aimed at preventing the export of advanced chip technology to China, the American semiconductor company Nvidia is reportedly developing a version of its new artificial intelligence chips to align with these regulations.
Nvidia is focusing on a variant of its Blackwell AI chips tailored for the Chinese market. According to sources cited by Reuters, the company plans to collaborate with local distributor Inspur to launch the chip, which is provisionally named the “B20,” in China.
The B20 is anticipated to begin shipping in the second quarter of 2025. Nvidia has chosen not to comment on these developments.
The company has already developed three chip models designed to comply with U.S. export controls, which include the H20. In response to sluggish sales, Nvidia reduced prices for the H20 to compete with chips produced by the domestic company Huawei. However, sales of the H20 have reportedly begun to increase. According to SemiAnalysis data cited by the Financial Times, Nvidia is projected to sell over one million H20 chips in China this year, amounting to approximately $12 billion, despite the existing trade restrictions. This forecast nearly doubles Huawei’s projected sales of its Ascend 910B chip.
Analysts from Jeffries have raised concerns regarding the potential vulnerability of Nvidia’s H20 chips under new U.S. trade regulations. The annual review of semiconductor export controls by the U.S. in October may lead to a ban on H20 sales to China, according to their report. This ban could manifest in several forms, such as a specific product ban, lowering the computing power threshold, or placing limitations on memory capacity.
Furthermore, there is potential for the U.S. to broaden its export control measures on chips destined for other countries in the region, including Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, or to extend these measures to overseas Chinese firms—a move that would be more challenging to implement, analysts noted.