Following the tightening of sanctions by the US and the ban on the supply of the H20 AI accelerator to China, Nvidia has found itself in a difficult situation and is forced to reconsider its strategy for working with the key Chinese market to avoid violating export restrictions. The company is in talks with Alibaba, ByteDance and Tencent about supplying adapted chips.
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CEO Jensen Huang personally briefed partners on the new developments during a visit to Beijing in mid-April, Reuters reported. The trip came shortly after the United States restricted exports of H20 chips (a specialized version of the H100) to China for artificial intelligence.
According to Nvidia’s own estimates, the new export restrictions could deprive the company of $5.5 billion in revenue, and in order to minimize losses, chips are being developed that would formally comply with American requirements, but at the same time would retain high performance. In parallel, work is underway on a “Chinese” version of the latest Blackwell processor.
The Chinese market remains critically important for Nvidia, so the company is looking for any way to maintain its presence there. It has previously released “cut-down” versions of chips for this region, but the new sanctions require more complex technical solutions, which is what engineers are currently working on. The first samples of AI accelerators are reportedly expected to arrive to Chinese customers in June, with the Chinese version of Blackwell a little later.
Nvidia declined to comment. ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent, as well as the U.S. Commerce Department, did not respond to requests for comment.