On December 6th local time, Nvidia CEO Huang Renxun stated at a press conference held in Singapore that Nvidia is currently working with the US government to ensure that chips targeting the Chinese market will comply with new export restrictions.
According to US media reports, last month Nvidia informed Chinese customers that it will launch new artificial intelligence chips specifically for China in the first quarter of next year. On December 6th, at a press conference in Singapore, Huang Renxun stated that Nvidia has been closely cooperating with the US government to produce products that comply with its regulations; Nvidia will provide a new set of products that comply with the latest regulations of the US government for the Chinese market.
At the press conference, Huang Renxun added that Nvidia needs to seek market advice, and this process will take some time.
Previously, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raymond stated, "We cannot allow China to acquire these chips. We will refuse to provide them with our cutting-edge technology."
Raymond reiterated the position of the Biden administration in his speech. The White House believes that selling advanced chips to China will bring national security issues to the United States, and national security is more important than corporate profits. Raymond said that in order to advance these efforts, the US Department of Commerce needs more funding and stated that he has a budget of "$200 million.".
In response to this, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin responded at a regular press conference held on December 4th that the US should establish a correct understanding of China, work together with China to effectively implement the important consensus reached at the San Francisco summit between the US and China, stop viewing China as a "hypothetical enemy", and correct the wrong behavior of engaging in major country confrontation under the guise of competition.
It is understood that the US government's measures to restrict the export of chips to China officially began last year. Last summer, with the implementation of the Chip Act, many companies including Nvidia, AMD, and Intel were disrupted in their business. At that time, the United States prohibited Nvidia from selling H100 and A100 chips to China. Subsequently, Nvidia designed their substitutes - H800 and A800, which can still be legally sold to China. But recently, a new round of restrictions has forced Nvidia to design new versions of chips for the Chinese market that comply with export regulations, and the performance of these chips is usually not as good as previous versions.
It is reported that Nvidia will sell new chips in China, including H20, L20, and L2 GPUs, which will soon be put into mass production.
According to Reuters, the Chinese artificial intelligence chip market is approximately $7 billion, with Nvidia accounting for over 90% of the market share.
Nvidia warned in its November financial report that its sales in China will significantly decline in the fourth quarter of this year due to the US government's new export regulations. Huang Renxun pointed out that the Chinese market accounts for about 20% of Nvidia's revenue, and it is difficult to predict how much this proportion will change with the new export restrictions in the United States.
Last spring, Huang Renxun told the Financial Times: "If China cannot purchase chips from the United States, China will manufacture them itself." "The United States must be careful, as China is a very important market for the technology industry.".
Analysts also suggest that US chip export restrictions to China may boost the growth of domestic Chinese competitors. At a press conference in Singapore, Huang Renxun stated that Huawei is its "strong" competitor.