As the United States contemplates stricter trade regulations to prevent advanced chip technology from reaching China, Nvidia, a leading American chipmaker, is reportedly developing a version of its new artificial intelligence chips to comply with these emerging rules.
According to unnamed sources cited by Reuters, Nvidia is collaborating with a local partner, Inspur, to introduce and market a chip tentatively named the “B20” within China.
The B20 is projected to begin shipping in the second quarter of 2025. Nvidia has not provided any comments regarding this development.
Nvidia currently has three chips designed specifically to adhere to U.S. export controls, including the H20, which the company has reduced prices on due to weak sales in an effort to compete with products from domestic rival Huawei. However, sales of the H20 have reportedly begun to improve, with expectations that Nvidia will sell over one million units of the H20 chip in China this year, generating approximately $12 billion, despite existing U.S. trade barriers. This sales figure is nearly double Huawei’s projections for its Ascend 910B chip, as stated by data from SemiAnalysis.
On the other hand, analysts from Jefferies have noted that Nvidia’s H20 chips may face challenges under potential new U.S. trade regulations. During the annual review of semiconductor export controls in October, Jefferies suggests it is “highly likely” that the H20 will be prohibited from being sold to China. This ban could be implemented in several ways, including through a “product-specific ban,” a reduction in the computing power threshold, or limitations on memory capacity.
Furthermore, the U.S. could extend these export controls to chips sold to other countries in the region, such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, or even to overseas Chinese firms; however, the latter may pose greater implementation challenges, according to analysts.