As the U.S. seeks to impose stricter trade regulations to restrict advanced chip technology from reaching China, Nvidia, a leading American chipmaker, is reportedly developing a new version of its artificial intelligence chips that adheres to these regulations.
According to unnamed sources cited by Reuters, Nvidia is creating a variant of its upcoming Blackwell AI chips specifically for the Chinese market. The company plans to collaborate with a local distribution partner, Inspur, to launch and sell this chip, 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 currently has three chips that are designed to comply with U.S. export controls, including the H20 chip, for which Nvidia has lowered prices due to poor sales performance against competitors like Huawei. However, recent sources report that sales of the H20 have begun to increase. It is estimated that Nvidia could sell over one million H20 chips in China this year, valued at approximately $12 billion, despite ongoing U.S. trade limitations. This sales forecast nearly doubles Huawei’s anticipated sales for its Ascend 910B chip, according to data from SemiAnalysis.
Nevertheless, Nvidia’s H20 chips could face challenges under potential new U.S. trade regulations, according to analysts from Jefferies. They suggest that during the upcoming annual review of U.S. semiconductor export controls in October, there is a strong possibility that sales of the H20 chip to China could be prohibited. Potential methods for enforcement include a product-specific ban, lowering the computing power cap, or imposing limits on memory capacity.
Furthermore, the U.S. may consider extending its export controls to chips sold to additional countries in the region, such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, or even to Chinese companies operating abroad, though the latter option may prove more difficult to execute, analysts warn.