As the United States contemplates stricter trade measures to stop advanced chip technology from reaching China, Nvidia, a prominent American chip manufacturer, is reportedly developing a version of its new artificial intelligence chips that adheres to these potential regulations.
According to sources cited by Reuters, Nvidia is modifying its Blackwell AI chips for the Chinese market. The company is expected to collaborate with a local distribution partner, Inspur, to introduce and market the chip, which is tentatively named the “B20,” in China.
The B20 is anticipated to begin shipping in the second quarter of 2025. Nvidia has not commented on this matter.
Nvidia has already crafted three chips specifically designed to comply with U.S. export controls, one of which is the H20. The company has reduced prices for the H20 to counter sluggish sales and competition from the Chinese tech firm Huawei. However, recent reports indicate that sales for the H20 are now on the rise. Nvidia is projected to sell more than one million H20 chips in China this year, generating approximately $12 billion in revenue, despite the trade restrictions. This figure is nearly double Huawei’s expected sales for its Ascend 910B chip, according to data from SemiAnalysis.
At the same time, Jefferies analysts have raised concerns that the H20 chips may face future risks due to U.S. trade regulations. They noted that during the annual assessment of U.S. semiconductor export controls in October, there is a significant likelihood that the H20 could be prohibited for sale to China. Such a ban could manifest in various forms, including a specific product ban, adjustments to the computing power threshold, or limitations on memory capacity.
Moreover, there is potential for the U.S. to expand its export controls to chips sold to other nations in the region, including Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, or to extend restrictions to overseas Chinese companies, though the latter would present more challenges in implementation, analysts have suggested.