Athira Sethu
Kochi, 5 May 2025
Nvidia, a well-known computer chip manufacturer, is redesigning its AI (artificial intelligence) chips so it is still able to sell them to China. It does this because the U.S. government has set regulations to prevent the most powerful chips from being shipped to China.
Some of the largest Chinese technology firms, such as Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance (the owner of TikTok), employ Nvidia’s chips. Nvidia informed them that new models of its chips are being produced specifically for China. In this manner, they can continue to purchase and utilize the chips without violating U.S. regulations.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang traveled to Beijing in April. While he was there, he informed Chinese customers of these new plans. The U.S. government had just prevented Nvidia from selling one of its best chips, the H20, to China before his visit. This policy shift may cost Nvidia approximately $5.5 billion.
To address this issue, Nvidia is developing special chips that comply with U.S. export regulations but are still useful for Chinese firms to use in AI applications. A report says a trial of one of the new chips could be available as early as June. Nvidia is also developing a China-friendly version of its latest chip, “Blackwell.”
So far, Nvidia has said nothing publicly on this news. The firms with which it collaborates in China, such as Alibaba, ByteDance, and Tencent, have not yet spoken up as well. The U.S. Commerce Department that created the chip regulations, however, has remained silent too.
The U.S. is looking to decelerate China’s advancement in AI, hence it came up with these regulations. AI is gaining prominence in technology and even national security. Nvidia finds itself in the middle of this “tech cold war” between the U.S. and China.
Since China is a large market for Nvidia, the firm is attempting to strike a balance. It wishes to continue selling chips in China but at the same time comply with U.S. regulations. That’s why Nvidia is now designing new AI chips that are just powerful enough to be helpful, but not so powerful that they violate the rules.
