As the United States contemplates stricter trade measures to stop advanced chip technology from being shipped to China, Nvidia, a U.S.-based semiconductor manufacturer, is reportedly developing a new version of its artificial intelligence chips to meet these regulations.
Nvidia is designing a variant of its Blackwell AI chips for the Chinese market, according to sources cited by Reuters. The company is expected to partner with local distributor Inspur to introduce and sell a chip, preliminarily named the “B20,” in China.
The launch of the B20 is anticipated to occur in the second quarter of 2025, as per information shared with Reuters. Nvidia has not commented on this development.
The chipmaker currently has three chips that comply with U.S. export restrictions, including the H20, for which it has lowered prices due to sluggish sales in order to compete with local rival Huawei. Nonetheless, H20 sales appear to be on the rise, according to sources. Nvidia is poised to sell over one million H20 chips in China this year, projected to generate approximately $12 billion, despite existing U.S. trade restrictions, as reported by the Financial Times, referencing data from SemiAnalysis. This anticipated sales figure is nearly twice as much as Huawei’s projected sales for its Ascend 910B chip.
However, analysts from Jefferies have warned that Nvidia’s H20 chips may face restrictions under new U.S. trade regulations. They indicated in a note that during the upcoming U.S. annual review of semiconductor export controls in October, it is very likely that the H20 could be banned for sale in China. Such a ban could be implemented through a “product-specific ban,” a reduction in the computing power threshold, or a limitation on memory capabilities.
Furthermore, the U.S. might extend its export controls on chips sold to other countries in the region, including Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, or possibly broaden the restrictions to overseas Chinese firms, although such actions may prove more complex to execute, according to analyst assessments.