As the United States contemplates stricter trade measures to prevent advanced chip technology from being transferred to China, the American chip manufacturer Nvidia is reportedly developing a version of its latest artificial intelligence chips designed to adhere to these regulations.
According to reports from Reuters, Nvidia is creating a variant of its Blackwell AI chips for the Chinese market, in collaboration with a local distribution partner, Inspur. This new chip, provisionally named the “B20,” is anticipated to be shipped starting in the second quarter of 2025. Nvidia has chosen not to comment on the reports.
The company currently offers three chips that have been tailored to meet U.S. export restrictions, one of which is the H20. Nvidia recently lowered prices for the H20 in response to declining sales, driven by competition from domestic rival Huawei. However, sales for the H20 are now reportedly on the rise, with estimates suggesting that Nvidia could sell over a million H20 chips in China this year, amounting to approximately $12 billion, despite ongoing U.S. trade limitations.
In the meantime, analysts from Jefferies have warned that Nvidia’s H20 chips may face new risks due to potential tightening of U.S. trade regulations. They anticipate that during the annual review of semiconductor export controls in October, it is “highly likely” that the H20 will be prohibited for sale to China. This potential ban could manifest in various ways, including a specific product ban, a reduction in the allowable computing power, or limits on memory capacity.
Additionally, there are concerns that the U.S. may extend its export restrictions to chips sold to other nations in the region, such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, or even apply these controls to overseas Chinese companies, although this latter move would be more challenging to execute, according to analysts.