By Liam Mo and Fanny Potkin
Beijing / Singapore (Reuters) -Nvidia is developing a new AI chip for China based on its latest Blackwell architecture which will be more powerful than the H20 model that it is currently authorized to sell there, according to two informed people.
President Donald Trump opened the door last week to the possibility that more advanced Nvidia chips are sold in China. But the sources noted that American regulatory approval is far from being guaranteed in the middle of deep fears in Washington to give China too access to American artificial intelligence technology.
The new chip, temporarily known as B30A, will use a design to a single die which is likely to provide half of the gross calculation power of the double DIE configuration more sophisticated in the B300 flagship accelerator card of Nvidia, according to the sources.
A design to a single die is when all the main parts of an integrated circuit are made on a continuous piece of silicon rather than dividing several matrices.
The new chip would have a large -band memory and NVLINK technology from NVIDIA for rapid data transmission between processors, features that are also in the H20 – a chip based on the old Hopper architecture of the company.
The chip specifications are not completely finalized, but Nvidia hopes to deliver samples to Chinese customers for tests next month, sources that were not allowed to speak to the media and refused to be identified.
Nvidia said in a press release: “We assess a variety of products for our roadmap, so that we can be ready to compete in the extent that governments allow.”
“All we offer is with the complete approval of the applicable authorities and designed only for beneficial commercial use,” he said.
The American Ministry of Commerce has not responded to a request for comments from Reuters.
Flash point
The extent to which China, which generated 13% of NVIDIA income during the last year, can have access to advanced AI fleas is one of the largest flash points in American trade tensions.
Nvidia only received authorization to recommend sales of the H20. It was developed specifically for China after export restrictions were set up in 2023, but the company was suddenly condemned to stop sales in April.
Trump said that last week, he could allow Nvidia to sell a reduced version of his new generation chip in China after announcing an unprecedented agreement that will see Nvidia and Rival AMD giving the US government 15% of sales income from a few advanced chips in China.
A new NVIDIA chip for China could have “30% to 50% reduction,” he suggested in an apparent reference to the fleeing power of the chip, adding that the H20 was “obsolete”.
