The semiconductor giant still wants to be present in the Chinese semiconductor market. And for this, it draws a chip with a very good quality/price ratio.
China must face exceptionally strong American sanctions in the semiconductor sector, in order to slow down its development in strategic sectors such as artificial intelligence. However, this is not enough to scare off the world leader in the most advanced chips, Nvidia, for whom the Chinese market remains extremely important. The firm founded by Jensen Huang is launching a new chip, which should quickly be popular with local companies.
Nvidia arrives with the H20 chip
Nvidia has surely been the most sought-after company in the world for the past year and a half, with its exceptionally powerful chips used by all the giants wishing to develop AI. But due to American sanctions, Chinese companies can hardly obtain supplies from this company.
The powerful H100 chip was thus banned from export to China by Washington in September 2022, while the H800 chip, developed specifically by Nvidia so as to have low enough computing power to pass through the sanctions, has, in turn, was banned from China last October.
But Nvidia persists, and has developed an H20 chip, even less powerful, which can still be sold in China. However, according to sources from Reuters less powerful than Huawei’s Ascend 910B chip on certain points.
Cheaper than the most powerful Huawei chip
If in terms of power, there will be a match between Nvidia’s H20 and Huawei’s Ascend 910B, the Californian firm will be able to play on another variable to win over customers: price. According to Reutersdistributors in China have started to offer the H20 at a price of 110,000 yuan (around 14,200 euros), while the Ascend 910B is marketed at nearly 120,000 yuan (15,500 euros).
The first H20 chips will begin to be sold in China in small quantities during the first quarter of 2024, while mass production is scheduled by Nvidia for the second quarter of the same year. The semiconductor giant, in parallel with the H20, will produce two other less powerful chips dedicated specifically to the Chinese market, the L20 and L2. Will this be enough to maintain an advantageous position in the Middle Kingdom?
Source : Reuters
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