Over the past few years, the US administrations have tightened the grip on sending AI chips and any chip-related equipment to China under both Biden and Trump. NVIDIA and AMD, the biggest producers of AI GPUs, are severely hit due to these restrictions. However, both firms can soon resume trading with China.
According to a new report by Digitimes, NVIDIA and AMD are set to introduce their new modified AI chips to the Chinese market. After the setback of being barred from selling China-specific H20 chips, NVIDIA has been working on a non-Hopper series chip for China, which is likely to be a stripped-down version of a Blackwell GPU.
As the report reads, NVIDIA's new GPU for China is named "B20," while AMD is also joining the race with Radeon AI PRO R9700 and its other products. These GPUs are said to support Chinese homegrown AI models such as DeepSeek. NVIDIA and AMD's new chips for China are expected to go on sale in July 2025.
While the exact price of these new GPUs is yet to be announced, Reuters has reported that NVIDIA's new China-specific GPU, based on the Blackwell architecture, is expected to cost $6,500-$8,000 for Chinese customers. This is a significant reduction from the $10,000-$12,000 price tag of NVIDIA's former H20 chips.
To comply with the US restrictions, NVIDIA and AMD have developed a stripped-down version of one of their GPUs for China. In terms of power, these China-specific chips can not match NVIDIA and AMD's top-of-the-line products. However, this doesn't stop Chinese AI firms from buying tons of these AI chips, as they're the main currency for developing AI models and expanding data centers.
NVIDIA said on Wednesday that it expects the toll of US restrictions to reach $8 billion in Q2. The company has already incurred a $4.5 billion charge in Q1 due to canceling H20 AI chip orders from China.
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