Nvidia Photo: VCG

Nvidia is evaluating how to address the China market after the US government placed limits on sales of its Hopper H20 chip there but will not put out another version from the Hopper series, CEO Jensen Huang said on Saturday, Reuters reported.

Asked what the company's next chip for China after the H20 was, Huang said: "It's not Hopper because it's not possible to modify Hopper anymore," Huang said, per the Reuters report 

The H20, which had been Nvidia's most powerful AI chip cleared for Chinese sales, was effectively blocked from the market after US officials informed the company last month that the product would require an export license. The H20 was introduced after Washington tightened export controls in October 2023, the Reuters reported.

The Global Times sought clarification from Nvidia on whether it can still sell H20 chip to China, but as of press time, no reply had been received.

Reuters reported earlier this month that Nvidia plans to release a downgraded version of the H20 chip for China in the next two months, as it seeks to prop up sales in the country.

In recent days, several foreign media outlets, including Reuters, citing unnamed sources, reported that Nvidia was seeking a site in Shanghai for a R&D center. This reflects "the strategic significance of the Chinese market where US curbs on advanced chip exports have hit sales," Reuters reported on Friday.

The Nvidia CEO has repeatedly said that China is critical to the company's growth. China generated $17 billion in revenue for Nvidia in the fiscal year ending January 26, accounting for 13 percent of the company's total sales, according to the Reuters.

However, the US has moved to tighten restrictions on US chip exports to China with various moves. For example, the US Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion, issued in January just a week before the end of former President Joe Biden's administration, aimed to limit AI chip exports to most countries, according to the Reuters. 

Last week, the US Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) said it had initiated a rescission of the Biden Administration's AI Diffusion Rule, while announcing additional steps to strengthen export controls on semiconductors worldwide. The BIS also said it would issue guidance that using Chinese telecom firm Huawei's Ascend chips "anywhere in the world" violates US export controls and warning about the "potential consequences" of allowing US AI chips to be used for training and inference of Chinese AI models, according to a press release.

Asked to comment on the BIS's move at a regular press briefing on Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said that the US overstretches the concept of national security, abuses export controls and long-arm jurisdiction, and groundlessly and maliciously blocks and suppresses China's chips and AI industry, which severely violates market rules, destabilizes global industrial and supply chains, and undermines Chinese businesses' legitimate rights and interests. 

"China firmly opposes this and absolutely does not accept it. China urges the US to drop its protectionist acts and unilateral bullying, and stop its egregious suppression on China's tech businesses and AI industry. China will take firm measures to defend its right to development and Chinese businesses' legitimate rights and interests," Lin said.

Telecom industry expert Xiang Ligang told the Global Times on Sunday that the US government's continuous tightening of high-performance chip export policies to China under the pretext of "national security" is a blatant example of administrative overreach in the market. 

US chip controls will harm the interests of US domestic enterprises. This approach of replacing market competition with administrative intervention will ultimately undermine the global competitiveness of US companies, while failing to truly curb China's technological progress in long run as it intended, Xiang said.

"The US government's relentless pressure on companies to restrict chip exports to China, aiming to stifle China's AI development and preserve its AI dominance, is pure zero-sum thinking. It not only hurts American firms but also hurt global AI development, stalling technological progress and undermining global prosperity," Ma Jihua, a veteran telecom expert, told the Global Times on Sunday. 

Global Times