Chinese companies choose Nvidia / Depositphotos
Despite China's official policy of rejecting American technology, leading Chinese technology firms continue to show significant interest in Nvidia chips for artificial intelligence development.
This is reported by Delo.ua with reference to a Reuters publication.
According to sources, the companies want assurances that their orders for the Nvidia H20 model, which the American firm received approval to sell in China again in July, are being processed.
In addition, the Chinese tech giants are closely monitoring the development of an even more powerful chip, the B30A, based on the Blackwell architecture. If the US allows its export, the B30A could cost around $20,000 (about twice the price of the H20, which is priced at $10,000–12,000).
Reuters sources note that Chinese companies consider this price to be advantageous, as the B30A promises to be six times more productive than the H20.
Interest in Nvidia chips remains high, despite Beijing's efforts to encourage the use of domestic counterparts from companies such as Huawei and Cambricon. Chinese engineers prefer Nvidia products because of their higher performance, sources said.
The situation in the chip market reflects a complex interplay of geopolitics and business interests. On the one hand, Washington has relaxed restrictions to keep Chinese firms in the Nvidia ecosystem and prevent them from fully switching to competing platforms.
What is known about the H20 chip?
Nvidia designed the H20 chip specifically for Chinese customers to comply with long-standing US restrictions on the sale of its more advanced hardware, restrictions aimed at limiting Beijing's access to artificial intelligence, which could be useful to the Chinese military.
The H20 chip has less processing power than Nvidia's best offerings, but its high memory bandwidth is well suited for the stage of AI development, when models recognize patterns and draw conclusions.
This has made it a desirable product for companies such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. in China.
As a reminder, American chip giants Nvidia and AMD have agreed to give the US government 15% of their revenue from chip sales to China. This agreement is a condition for obtaining export licenses.
On the other hand, Chinese authorities have been tacitly urging local companies to abandon American chips, citing concerns about information security. However, there have been no direct bans on purchases yet.
