As the U.S. contemplates stricter trade restrictions to limit the export of advanced chip technology to China, Nvidia, a leading American chipmaker, is reportedly developing a variant of its new artificial intelligence chips to adhere to these regulations.
According to sources cited by Reuters, Nvidia is creating a version of its Blackwell AI chips for the Chinese market, tentatively designated the “B20.” The company plans to collaborate with a local distributor, Inspur, to market and sell the new chip in China.
The B20 is anticipated to begin shipping in the second quarter of 2025. Nvidia has not made any official comments regarding this development.
Nvidia currently offers three chips specifically designed to meet U.S. export restrictions, including the H20 chip, which the company has recently reduced in price to maintain competitiveness against products from its domestic rival, Huawei. Despite initial challenges, sales of the H20 have started to increase, with projections indicating that Nvidia may sell over one million of these chips in China this year, generating approximately $12 billion in revenue, according to data from SemiAnalysis reported by the Financial Times. This estimated sales figure is nearly double what Huawei expects for its Ascend 910B chip.
However, analysts at Jefferies have expressed concern that Nvidia’s H20 chips could be jeopardized under potential new U.S. trade regulations. They noted that during the upcoming annual review of U.S. semiconductor export controls in October, it is “highly likely” that the H20 will face a sales ban in China. Such a ban could materialize in several ways, including a specific product ban, a reduction in the computing power cap, or restrictions on memory capacity.
Furthermore, the U.S. may extend its export controls on semiconductor products to other Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, or broaden the restrictions to include overseas Chinese firms, although the latter would be more challenging to enforce, according to analysts.