Nvidia is preparing a new version of its flagship AI chip for the Chinese market, according to a source.
Nvidia is developing a new version of its flagship AI chip for the Chinese market that is compatible with current U.S. export controls, four people familiar with the matter said.
The AI chip giant unveiled its “Blackwell” line of chips in March, which are expected to be in mass production later this year. The new processor combines two silicon cells the size of the company’s previous products. In the lineup, the B200 is 30 times faster than the previous generation at some tasks, like answering questions from chatbots.
Nvidia will work with Inspur, one of its main distribution partners in China, to launch and distribute the chip, tentatively named “B20,” two of the sources said. Shipments of the “B20” are expected to begin in the second quarter of 2025, a separate source told Reuters.
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The sources declined to be identified because Nvidia has yet to make an official announcement.
An Nvidia spokesperson declined to comment. Inspur also did not respond to a request for comment.
Nvidia shares rose 1.4% to $119.67 in U.S. premarket trading after the Reuters article was published.
Washington has tightened controls on exports of advanced semiconductors to China by 2023, aiming to prevent breakthroughs in supercomputing that could aid the Chinese military.
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Since then, Nvidia has developed three chips specifically designed for the Chinese market.
Tightening US export controls have helped Chinese tech giant Huawei and startups like Tencent-backed Enflame tap into the domestic market for advanced AI processors.
A version of Nvidia’s Blackwell line of chips for the Chinese market would bolster the US company’s efforts to counter those challenges.
China accounted for about 17% of Nvidia’s revenue in the year through January after the US sanctions, down from 26% two years earlier.
Reuters reported in May that Nvidia’s most advanced chip for the Chinese market, the H20, initially got off to a weak start when it began shipping this year, and that the U.S. company had priced it below rival Huawei’s chip.
But two sources said sales are now growing rapidly.
Nvidia is on track to sell more than 1 million H20 chips in China this year, worth more than $12 billion, according to estimates from research group SemiAnalysis.
Expectations are high that the United States will continue to maintain pressure on export controls related to semiconductors.
The United States wants the Netherlands and Japan to further restrict exports of chipmaking equipment to China, sources said.
The Biden administration also has preliminary plans to put safeguards around the most advanced AI models, the core software of artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT, the sources said.
Global chip stocks plunged last week after Bloomberg News reported that the Biden administration was considering a measure called the foreign direct product rule that would allow the U.S. to block the sale of a product if it was made with U.S. technology.
