Nvidia has reportedly developed three new chips dedicated to artificial intelligence for the Chinese market, based on its flagship product, the H100 chip, according to official media outlet Chinastarmarket, citing anonymous supply chain sources. Nvidia has not yet reacted to this information. The H100 is a huge GPU dedicated to AI with 80 billion transistors engraved in 4nm.
The American group specializing in graphics cards suffered the repercussions of the Biden administration’s decision to further restrict chip exports to China, particularly those dedicated to artificial intelligence.
Products targeted by Washington last month include Nvidia’s A800 and H800 series. These chips were designed for Chinese companies after American authorities introduced restrictions on artificial intelligence accelerators for China in 2022, for fear that Beijing would use them to modernize its army, recalls Bloomberg.
New rules set by the United States prevent Nvidia from exporting RTX 4090 graphics cards dedicated to gaming.
The Chinese counter-offensive
Faced with its restrictive measures, China began the counter-offensive. Huawei has been trying to regain ground against Nvidia since the launch of its Ascend 910 chip in 2019, which then offered an engraving fineness of 7 nm, and more recently with the 910B, which has not been officially confirmed, but mentioned by various Chinese media. The 910B is intended to compete with Nvidia’s A100 chip, launched in 2020, and the H100 launched in 2022. Huawei has reportedly secured a large chip order from Chinese tech giant Baidu, according to Reuters.
China is pulling out all the stops in the field of semiconductors to be able to meet internal demand and no longer come up against US restrictions. Thus, the company Changxin Xinqiao Storage Technology has just raised 39 billion yuan (5 billion euros) to finalize the construction of “a gigantic semiconductor factory project” in the east of the country, according to Nikkei Asia. The Chinese government is “the main investor”. Beijing has launched a new state-backed investment fund which aims to raise around $40 billion to develop the sector, according to Reuters.
Intel also plans to launch a new chip for China, according to local media outlet 21st Century Business Herald. The battle of the chips for the Middle Kingdom has only just begun.
Sources: Bloomberg, Nikkei Asia, Reuters