As the United States considers implementing stricter trade restrictions to prevent advanced chip technology from being exported to China, the American chipmaker Nvidia is reportedly developing a version of its new artificial intelligence chips to adhere to these regulations.
Nvidia is said to be collaborating with a local distribution partner, Inspur, to introduce and sell a chip tentatively named the “B20” in the Chinese market. This information comes from sources familiar with the situation, according to Reuters.
The B20 is anticipated to begin shipping in the second quarter of 2025. Nvidia has not issued any comments regarding this development.
The company has three chips specifically designed to meet U.S. export controls, including the H20 chip, which saw price reductions due to weak sales in an effort to compete with chips from the Chinese firm Huawei. However, H20 sales have reportedly started to increase, with expectations that Nvidia will sell over one million H20 chips in China this year, generating approximately $12 billion in revenue despite ongoing U.S. trade restrictions.
In contrast, Nvidia’s anticipated sales are nearly double Huawei’s projected sales for its Ascend 910B chip, as noted by SemiAnalysis data.
On another note, analysts from Jeffries have warned that Nvidia’s H20 chips may face risks under new U.S. trade regulations. With the annual review of semiconductor export controls scheduled for October, it is considered “highly likely” that the H20 will be prohibited from being sold to China, according to the analysts. They outlined three possible scenarios for such a ban: a product-specific prohibition, a reduction in the computing power cap, or limitations on memory capacity.
Additionally, the U.S. could broaden its export controls to include chips sold to other countries in the region, such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, or to extend these controls to overseas Chinese companies. However, implementing these broader restrictions may prove to be more challenging, the analysts noted.