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NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang visited China in mid-April, just days after the U.S. government imposed new restrictions on the company’s H20 AI chips—models specifically developed for the Chinese market. According to Reuters, citing The Information, NVIDIA has reportedly notified key Chinese customers—including Alibaba, ByteDance (TikTok’s parent), and Tencent—that it is redesigning its AI chips to comply with U.S. export rules. The company reportedly told clients that samples of the new chip could be ready as early as June.
Notably, the report also mentions that NVIDIA is developing a China-specific version of its latest-generation AI chip, Blackwell.
NVIDIA was notified by the U.S. government on April 9 that exporting the H20 to China would require a license, as noted by Reuters. On April 14, the company was reportedly informed that these restrictions would remain in place indefinitely. Following the restrictions, NVIDIA announces it will take a USD 5.5 billion charge, according to Reuters and Bloomberg.
Bloomberg further states that the financial hit suggests NVIDIA could lose an estimated USD 14–18 billion in annual revenue. The report also notes that if the restrictions remain in place, NVIDIA’s data center sales in China could fall back to early 2024 levels—just low to mid-single digits.
Amid these developments, NVIDIA has warned that restricting chip sales to China and other countries could ultimately undermine U.S. leadership in advanced technology. As highlighted by CNBC, CEO Jensen Huang has also stated that China is “not behind” in AI and described Huawei as “one of the most formidable technology companies in the world.”
According to The Wall Street Journal, Huawei Technologies is reportedly preparing to test its most advanced AI processor to date, the Ascend 910D, which it hopes could serve as an alternative to high-end NVIDIA chips. The first batch of samples is reported to arrive by late May.
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(Photo credit: NVIDIA)
