US authorities change their minds about restricting exports of Nvidia H20 accelerators to China

Since the fall of 2023, Nvidia H20 accelerators with Hopper architecture have been the most powerful solution for artificial intelligence systems that the company is allowed to supply to China. This week, their supplies were planned to be cut off, but the visit of the head of Nvidia to the residence of the American president last week allowed this decision to be canceled.

Image source: NVIDIA

The tightening of the ban on the supply of Nvidia accelerators to China had been in the works for several months, as Reuters explains with reference to NPR, but the fate of this decision was determined last week by the visit of the head and founder of Nvidia Jensen Huang to the residence of Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. As usual, the head of the company ensured a favorable outcome of the negotiations for himself with promises to increase investments in the United States, expressed in the construction of new data processing centers for artificial intelligence systems.

Back in January, it became known that the administration of the new US president was considering the possibility of restricting the supply of H20 accelerators to China, but it was discussed by the previous administration. In February, this led to a sharp increase in demand for H20 accelerators in China. It is generally accepted that although they are inferior in performance to Nvidia accelerators available outside of China, they still remain the most effective for the development of artificial intelligence systems on the local market. According to some data, large Chinese companies ordered H20 accelerators for a total of $16 billion in just three months of this year. Over the entire last year, Nvidia earned more than $17 billion in China. The region’s share of the company’s total revenue is rapidly declining, but Nvidia is ready to defend its interests at the highest political level, according to NPR data.