Tech Desk 
Jul 23, 2024
Nvidia, the AI chip giant, is developing a version of its flagship AI chips for the Chinese market — the Blackwell series. This significant move came after the US tightened its export controls on semiconductors to China in 2023.
However, this new chip, tentatively named "B20", will be compatible with the current US export controls and is expected to be launched in the second quarter of 2025.
The US government has been tightening its grip on exports of advanced semiconductors to China, which seeks to prevent development in supercomputing that could aid China's military.
That has made sales from China fall from 26% of Nvidia's revenues two years ago to about 17% in the year to January.
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Inspur, one of the big distributor partners of Nvidia in China, will jointly develop the B20 chip. The chip is most likely to be a variant of Nvidia's Blackwell series, which, just like any other high-performance server processing chip, bonds two squares of silicon to perform 30 times faster than its predecessor to serve up answers from chatbots.
The B20 chip is set to be disclosed, helping Nvidia fend against challenges from Chinese technology giants such as Huawei and some startups within China focusing on the domestic market for advanced AI processors.
This move is expected to boost Nvidia's efforts in tapping the China market, which represents about 17% of revenue in the period under review.
It's estimated that Nvidia will sell more than 1 million of its H20 chips in China this year, worth upwards of $12 billion, according to a research group called SemiAnalysis.
