Nvidia to mass-produce modified AI chips for China in Q2: report

Last week, Nvidia launched its China-exclusive GeForce RTX 4090D. Credit: Nvidia

US chip giant Nvidia is gearing up to mass produce a range of AI chips including its H20 model for China in the second quarter of 2024, with Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Wistron picked as the major supplier of these GPU (graphics processing unit) substrate orders, according to US media outlet Wccftech.

Why it matters: Despite the US government’s ban on high-performance AI chip exports, Nvidia has developed modified AI chips for the Chinese market and is ready to ship limited sales of less powerful AI chips to China as long as they adhere to regulatory standards.

Details: Nvidia is modifying its latest AI chips specifically for the Chinese market, including the HGX H20, L20 PCle, and L2 PCle. The three chips are based on the Nvidia H100, but allow the company to comply with the latest US export control policies announced last October.

Nvidia originally planned to start selling a modified version of these AI chips by the end of 2023, but postponed the launch to early 2024 as the China-US chip war escalated, the Wccftech report said. 

Since then, the US government has adopted a softer stance on commercial sales in China, and Nvidia has assured the government that their chips will fully meet compliance guidelines established by US trade and commerce authorities. Last week, Nvidia launched its China-exclusive GeForce RTX 4090D, a less powerful version of the flagship RTX 4090 GPU it sells elsewhere.

The H20 AI chip is a scaled-down version of the H100 GPU, equipped with 96 GB memory capacities that operate at speeds of up to 4.0 Tb/s, according to Nvidia. It offers computing power of 296 TFLOPs and a performance density of 2.9 TFLOPs/die, in contrast to the H100’s 1,979 TFLOPs and 19.4 TFLOPs/die.

Context: Last October, the US government issued a new ban, further restricting the export of high-performance AI chips by Nvidia. Subsequently, the chip giant announced an immediate halt to the shipment of its A100, A800, H100, H800, and L40S products.

In December 2023, during an interview with Reuters, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo stated that the government was in discussions with Nvidia about allowing the chip firm to sell AI chips to China under certain conditions. Raimondo emphasized that the government would stop Nvidia from exporting its most complex and powerful AI chips, but would not curb its chip sales to China altogether. 

Jessie Wu is a tech reporter based in Shanghai. She covers consumer electronics, semiconductor, and the gaming industry for TechNode. Connect with her via e-mail: [email protected].
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