As the United States evaluates stricter trade restrictions aimed at preventing advanced chip technology from reaching China, Nvidia, a prominent American chipmaker, is reportedly developing a version of its new artificial intelligence chips to meet these regulations.
According to sources familiar with the situation, Nvidia is collaborating with a local distributor, Inspur, to introduce and market a chip tentatively named the “B20” in China. The B20 is anticipated to begin shipping in the second quarter of 2025. Nvidia has not provided any comments on this development.
Nvidia already has three chip models that are designed to comply with U.S. export regulations, including the H20, which the company has reduced prices on to compete with products from domestic rival Huawei. Sales of the H20 chip are reportedly increasing, and it is projected that Nvidia will sell over one million units of the H20 in China this year, generating approximately $12 billion, despite existing U.S. trade barriers. This sales forecast is almost double Huawei’s expectations for its Ascend 910B chip.
However, analysts at Jefferies warn that Nvidia’s H20 chips may face challenges under impending U.S. trade regulations. They predict that during the annual review of semiconductor export controls in October, there is a strong possibility that the H20 could be prohibited for sale to China. Potential measures for this ban could include a product-specific prohibition, lowering the computing power threshold, or capping memory capacity.
Moreover, there is speculation that the U.S. may broaden its export restrictions to include chips sold to other countries in the region, like Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, or even extend these controls to Chinese companies operating overseas, although this would be more complex to execute, according to analysts.