As the United States considers implementing stricter trade measures to prevent advanced chip equipment from reaching China, Nvidia, a U.S.-based chip manufacturer, is reportedly developing a version of its latest artificial intelligence chips to adhere to these regulations.
According to reports, Nvidia is creating a variant of its new Blackwell AI chips specifically for the Chinese market. The company plans to collaborate with a local distributor, Inspur, to introduce and market the chip, which is expected to be named the “B20,” in China.
The launch of the B20 is anticipated to occur in the second quarter of 2025. Nvidia has not provided any comments on this development.
Nvidia has already designed three chips that comply with U.S. export restrictions, including the H20, for which the company has reduced prices due to sluggish sales in order to compete with chips from domestic rival Huawei. Nevertheless, sources indicate that sales of the H20 are on the rise, with estimates suggesting that Nvidia could sell over one million H20 chips in China this year, generating approximately $12 billion, despite ongoing U.S. trade barriers. This expected sales figure is nearly double Huawei’s projections for its Ascend 910B chip.
However, analysts from Jeffries have warned that Nvidia’s H20 chips may face increased scrutiny under new U.S. trade policies. The upcoming annual review of U.S. semiconductor export controls in October could potentially lead to a ban on the H20 for sale to China, as suggested by analysts. Such a ban could manifest in various forms, including a specific product ban, a reduction in computational power limits, or restrictions on memory capacity.
Furthermore, the U.S. may widen its export controls to include chips sold to other countries in the region, like Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, or extend these regulations to overseas Chinese firms, though this would pose additional implementation challenges, as per analysts.