As the U.S. contemplates stricter trade restrictions to prevent advanced chip technology from being sold to China, Nvidia, the U.S.-based chipmaker, is reportedly developing a new version of its artificial intelligence chips to meet these regulations.
According to unnamed sources cited by Reuters, Nvidia is creating a version of its Blackwell AI chips specifically for the Chinese market. The company is expected to collaborate with the local distributor, Inspur, to launch and market the new chip, provisionally named the “B20,” in China.
The B20 is anticipated to start shipping in the second quarter of 2025. Nvidia has not provided any comments on this development.
The chipmaker currently has three chips designed to comply with U.S. export controls, including the H20, which Nvidia reduced prices for in response to weak sales and to compete against Huawei’s domestic chips. Sales of the H20 are reportedly on the rise, and Nvidia is projected to sell over one million H20 chips in China this year, amounting to approximately $12 billion, despite existing U.S. trade restrictions. This expected sales figure is nearly double that of Huawei’s Ascend 910B chip forecasts, according to data from SemiAnalysis.
However, Nvidia’s H20 chips may face challenges under potential future U.S. trade regulations, as noted by analysts from Jefferies. They suggest that during the annual review of U.S. semiconductor export controls in October, it is quite probable that the H20 will be prohibited from being sold in China. Such a ban could be implemented in various ways, including a specific product ban, a reduction in the computing power cap, or restrictions on memory capacity.
Additionally, the U.S. may consider expanding export controls on chips to other countries in the region, such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, or even applying these controls to overseas Chinese firms, although the latter would be more complex to enforce, analysts indicated.