As the U.S. deliberates on implementing stricter trade restrictions to prevent advanced chip technology from being shipped to China, Nvidia, a leading U.S.-based chipmaker, is reportedly developing a modified version of its new AI chips to meet these regulations.
Nvidia is creating a version of its latest Blackwell AI chips tailored for the Chinese market, according to sources who spoke to Reuters. The company plans to collaborate with local distributor Inspur to introduce and market this new chip, expected to be named the “B20,” in China.
Reports indicate that the B20 is slated to begin shipping in the second quarter of 2025, although Nvidia has not officially commented on these developments.
Nvidia already offers three chip models specifically designed to comply with existing U.S. export controls, one of which is the H20. The chipmaker has reduced prices on the H20 due to sluggish sales, aiming to remain competitive against products from domestic rival Huawei. Recently, however, sales of the H20 have started to pick up, with analysts projecting that Nvidia will sell over one million of these chips in China this year, valued at approximately $12 billion, despite ongoing U.S. trade restrictions. This expected sales figure nearly doubles Huawei’s sales expectations for its own Ascend 910B chip.
At the same time, Nvidia’s H20 chips could face challenges under potential new U.S. trade policies, according to analysts from Jefferies. They suggest that during the upcoming annual assessment of U.S. semiconductor export controls in October, there is a high likelihood that the H20 may be barred from being sold to China. Such a ban could be enacted through a product-specific prohibition, by lowering computing power thresholds, or by capping memory capacity, the analysts noted.
Furthermore, the U.S. may also consider broadening export controls to include chips sold to other countries in the region, such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, or extending these controls to overseas companies with ties to China, although such measures would be more complex to enforce, according to industry experts.