As the United States contemplates stricter trade regulations to prevent advanced chip technology from reaching China, Nvidia, a U.S.-based chipmaker, is reportedly developing a modified version of its new artificial intelligence chips to comply with these measures.
Nvidia is creating a version of its Blackwell AI chips tailored for the Chinese market, according to reports from unnamed sources. The company plans to collaborate with local distribution partner Inspur to introduce and sell the chip, which is provisionally named “B20,” in China.
The B20 is anticipated to begin shipping in the second quarter of 2025, sources indicated. Nvidia has chosen not to make an official comment on the matter.
Currently, Nvidia has three chips specifically designed to meet U.S. export regulations, with the H20 being one of them. The company recently reduced prices for the H20 in response to lackluster sales in order to compete with local rival Huawei. However, sales of the H20 are reportedly on the rise, and Nvidia is projected to sell over one million H20 chips in China this year, amounting to about $12 billion, despite U.S. trade restrictions, according to the Financial Times and data from SemiAnalysis. This anticipated sales figure is nearly double Huawei’s projected sales for its Ascend 910B chip.
However, Nvidia’s H20 chips may face challenges due to potential further U.S. trade restrictions, analysts from Jefferies warned. During the annual review of U.S. semiconductor export controls in October, there is a strong possibility that the H20 chip could be prohibited from sale to China, as mentioned in an analyst note. Such a ban could materialize through several approaches: a specific prohibition for the product, a reduction in the computing power threshold, and/or restrictions on memory capacity.
Additionally, the U.S. might extend export controls on semiconductor sales to other countries in the region, including Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, or even broaden the restrictions to encompass overseas Chinese firms, though this last option would present greater challenges in implementation, analysts noted.