According to three sources familiar with the situation, Nvidia is developing a version of its upcoming flagship AI processors for the Chinese market that would comply with the country’s present export laws.
The “Blackwell” chip series, which will go into commercial production later this year, was announced by the AI chip behemoth in March. In that series, the B200 outperforms its predecessor by 30 times on certain tasks, such as providing chatbot responses.
The “B20” chip, as it is being called informally, will be launched and distributed by Nvidia in collaboration with Inspur, one of its primary distributor partners in China, according to two of the people.
The individuals asked not to be named because Nvidia has not yet released a statement to the public.
An Nvidia representative declined to comment. Requests for comments from Inspur were not answered.
In 2023, Washington strengthened its restrictions on the shipment of advanced semiconductors to China to thwart supercomputing advancements that would benefit China’s armed forces.
Since then, Nvidia has created three processors with the Chinese market in mind.
