As the U.S. evaluates stricter trade measures to stop advanced chip technology from being sold to China, Nvidia, a prominent American chipmaker, is reportedly developing a new version of its artificial intelligence chips to meet these regulations.
Sources familiar with the situation disclosed that Nvidia is creating a variant of its Blackwell AI chips specifically for the Chinese market. The company intends to partner with local distributor Inspur to introduce and market the chip, temporarily named the “B20,” in China.
Reports indicate that Nvidia plans to begin shipments of the B20 in the second quarter of 2025. Nvidia has not provided any comments on the matter.
Nvidia has already designed three chips to align with U.S. export regulations, including the H20, for which the company reduced prices due to sluggish sales competing against domestic rival Huawei. However, sources have noted a resurgence in H20 sales. Despite U.S. trade limitations, Nvidia is projected to sell over one million H20 chips in China this year, generating approximately $12 billion in revenue, according to SemiAnalysis data cited by the Financial Times. This anticipated sales figure is nearly double that of Huawei’s expectations for its Ascend 910B chip.
In the meantime, analysts at Jeffries have warned that Nvidia’s H20 chips could face additional risks from potential new U.S. trade policies. With the U.S. set to conduct its annual review of semiconductor export controls in October, the analysts have suggested that it is quite possible the H20 could be prohibited for sale in China. They noted that such a ban might occur through a variety of methods, including product-specific restrictions, reductions in computing power thresholds, or limitations on memory capacity.
Additionally, the U.S. could broaden its export restrictions on chips to other countries in the region, such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, or even expand controls to overseas Chinese enterprises, although implementing these measures would present challenges, according to the analysts.