According to reports, NVIDIA is developing a new flagship AI chip for the Chinese market to meet the latest US export control requirements. This will be another custom chip from NVIDIA for the Chinese market.
The new chip, tentatively named "B20," may have some features of NVIDIA's latest "Blackwell" series B200 chip. NVIDIA plans to launch and distribute this chip in collaboration with its main distribution partner in China, Inspur Group.
Over the past year, NVIDIA has launched several custom chips for the Chinese market, including:
- A800 and H800
In October 2022, the US government announced a series of export control measures, limiting China's access to high-performance AI chips made with advanced processes. In response to these restrictions, NVIDIA introduced the A800 and H800 chips, which are cut-down versions of the A100 and H100. The chip-to-chip interconnect speed was reduced from 600GB/s and 800GB/s to 400GB/s respectively to comply with US export restrictions.
- H20 and RTX 4090D
In October 2023, the US Department of Commerce issued new control rules, further tightening export restrictions on advanced AI chips. This led to the A800 and H800 also being included in the sales ban. In response, NVIDIA introduced the lower-performance H20 chip and the RTX 4090D graphics card for the consumer market.
While these custom chips have to some extent limited the development speed of domestic AI large models, they have also allowed Chinese companies to continue using NVIDIA's chip products. For NVIDIA, these custom products help maintain its important Chinese market, although its revenue in China has declined significantly.
As the US continues to tighten export controls, NVIDIA has been forced to continuously introduce new custom chips to adapt to policy changes. This reflects the impact of the current complex international trade environment on technology companies.