As the United States contemplates stricter trade regulations to restrict advanced chip technology from reaching China, Nvidia, a prominent American chip manufacturer, is reportedly developing a version of its new artificial intelligence chips to meet these new guidelines.
According to Reuters, Nvidia is in the process of creating a variant of its Blackwell AI chips specifically for the Chinese market. They are expected to collaborate with a local distributor, Inspur, to introduce and distribute a chip tentatively named the “B20” in China.
Shipping for the B20 is anticipated to commence in the second quarter of 2025, as per sources cited by Reuters. Nvidia has chosen not to comment on the matter.
The company has already introduced three chips engineered to adhere to U.S. export laws, including the H20, for which Nvidia has lowered prices in response to sluggish sales and competition from domestic rival Huawei. However, reports indicate that H20 sales are on the rise, with expectations of exceeding one million units sold in China this year, amounting to approximately $12 billion, despite existing trade barriers.
On the other hand, Nvidia’s H20 chips may face challenges under potential new U.S. trade regulations, according to analysts from Jefferies. They warned that during the annual review of semiconductor export controls scheduled for October, there is a strong possibility that the H20 could be prohibited from being sold to China. Possible restrictions could emerge through various avenues, including specific product bans, a reduction of the computing power limit, or constraints on memory capacity.
Furthermore, there are discussions that the U.S. might extend export controls to chips destined for other regional countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, or even expand these controls to overseas Chinese companies, though the latter may prove more complex to enforce.