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Chinese tech companies that have been burned by the Biden Administration’s expansion of chips trade restrictions may soon have a new option for AI chips. A new report claims that Nvidia is on the verge of rolling out a new AI accelerator based on its market-leading Blackwell design. Unlike the previously announced Blackwells, this one will comply with US trade restrictions in China.
Blackwell is the foundation upon which Nvidia is building its next-generation AI and gaming products. It announced the architecture earlier this year, promising a 30x improvement in AI workloads versus older designs. However, even the older chips were not permitted in China. Nvidia initially produced chips called A800 and H800, which were versions of the H100 and A100 with slower NVLink interconnect speeds. However, the US expanded export restrictions in late 2023 to ban those China-specific products.
According to Reuters, Nvidia is again trying to build a scaled-back version of its new chips that will be eligible for sale in China. The unconfirmed plans reportedly revolve around a product known as B20, which is based on the B200 Superchip design Nvidia revealed for servers back in March 2024.
The report does not go into detail about how Nvidia will make the chips valid for export to China, but it will probably involve a massive reduction in power. Reuters suggests B20 will have two dies the same size as the standard Blackwell, but each chip’s capabilities will be limited.
We can draw some general conclusions from Nvidia’s last China-specific effort. After its last-gen China chips were added to the ban list, Nvidia announced the H20 (based on the H200), which dropped the computing throughput from 1,979 TFLOPS to just 296 TFLOPS. A single B200 Superchip, which features two Blackwell chips and a Grace CPU, is expected to be around 4,500 TFLOPS. To get in under the US government’s limit on total processing power (TPP), Nvidia will have to lower the raw computing power and precision at 8, 16, 32, and 64 bits.
Credit: Nvidia
Washington’s technology restrictions aim to prevent China from using US technology for military purposes. This includes limiting China’s access to the most advanced semiconductor technologies, like those in use at Taiwan’s TSMC foundry. This has spurred China to ramp up domestic chip production at companies like SMIC and Huawei. Early work has shown that it is possible to produce more advanced chips even with older lithography tech. Chinese AI chips are still far behind the best from Nvidia, but it may be hard for the US firm to compete with one arm tied behind its back. Sales of the H20 were reportedly lackluster over the last quarter even though Nvidia priced it below competing Huawei AI accelerators.
Nvidia is allegedly working on the B20 launch with Inspur, one of two companies that handle its product distribution in China. B20 is said to be entering production later this year and could ship in early 2025.