US chip giant Nvidia is developing a new version of its Blackwell chip series specifically for the Chinese market so that the tech firm can adhere to US export rules while still profiting from China’s computing market, Reuters reports Monday, citing three anonymous sources familiar with the plans.The new AI offering for China is dubbed the B20 for now, but it’s unclear if that will be the final name of the product. The B20 could be a less-powerful version of its B200 chip announced earlier this year. Nvidia is working with the Chinese firm Inspur to launch the chip, according to the report. An Nvidia spokesperson declined to comment.Nvidia has previously designed the L20 PCIe, the L2 PCIe, and the HGX H20 chips for the Chinese market to adhere to US export rules. In 2022, the US barred the sale and shipment of advanced AI chips to China. Nvidia has repeatedly expressed that it’s following the rules, but US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo isn’t happy the company keeps redesigning its AI chips so it can sell altered versions to China.”If you redesign a chip around a particular cutline that enables them to do AI, I’m going to control it the very next day,” Raimondo said on the issue back in December, adding: “Protecting our national security matters more than short-term revenue.”But there are plenty of loopholes China-based buyers can exploit to work around the US rules and gain access to the restricted chips anyway. Chinese companies can use the hardware virtually by renting it via Microsoft and Google cloud servers. Others are reportedly bringing the restricted hardware into China via another country where such export rules don’t exist. And some server products containing the advanced chips are still making it to China as well.
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While the US has ramped up its domestic chip manufacturing industry thanks to billions in funding from Biden’s CHIPS Act, Chinese firms like Huawei and Tencent’s Enflame are developing their own chips, too. TikTok’s parent company ByteDance is also reportedly developing its own AI chip this year that TSMC will manufacture, but it’s unclear when exactly the new tech might go into production.
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