Nvidia asked the US government for permission to sell its H20 graphics processing unit (GPU) in China two weeks ago.
What you should know
The US government has allowed Nvidia to export advanced AI chips to China. The US administration has approved the resumption of sales by lifting the export ban imposed earlier in April.
According to Kevin Hassett, National Economic Adviser of the White House, told Fox News channel , President Donald Trump and his administration decided to let Nvidia's H20 chips go to China in order to maintain America's dominance in the technology sector. If China does not buy chips from the US, they can make their own chips and there is a risk that China will move ahead in the chip race, Hassot mentioned.
Nvidia asked the US government for permission to sell its H20 graphics processing unit (GPU) in China two weeks ago. The company had also assured to get a separate license for this. The H20 is one of the most advanced chips Nvidia can sell in China. H20's computing power is said to be slightly lower than Nvidia's chips sold outside of China due to restrictions imposed by Trump's first administration and then by President Joe Biden.
According to the news published by the Financial Times last Thursday, three months after Washington tightened chip export controls, Nvidia's advanced AI chips worth at least $1 billion were smuggled into China . It is mentioned in the news that Nvidia's B200 processor, banned for sale in China, is widely available in the black market of China through Thailand.
Nvidia's response is that building a data center using such smuggled chips is both technically and economically wrong, and that the company only provides service and support for official products. The US Department of Commerce has said that since September, it has been discussing the issue of tightening the export control of advanced AI chips to countries like Thailand.
