US to block Nvidia’s sale of scaled-down AI chip to China: Report
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Nvidia is working on modifying the B30A chip’s design in hopes that the US administration will reconsider its stance, the report said.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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Bengaluru – The White House has informed other federal agencies that it will not permit Nvidia to sell its latest scaled-down artificial intelligence (AI) chip to China, The Information reported on Nov 6, citing three people familiar with the matter.
Nvidia has provided samples of the chip to several of its Chinese customers, according to the report.
The chip, known as B30A, can be utilised to train large language models when efficiently arranged in large clusters, a capability many Chinese companies require, the report added.
An Nvidia spokesperson told Reuters that the company has “zero share in China’s highly competitive market for data centre compute, and (does) not include it in our guidance”.
The Information report said Nvidia is working on modifying the B30A’s design in hopes that the US administration will reconsider its stance, citing two company employees.
The US company has faced regulatory headwinds in China.
Beijing recently issued guidance requiring all new data centre projects that receive any state funding to use only domestically developed chips, Reuters reported on Nov 5, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Data centres that are less than 30 per cent complete will have to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, the sources added.
The guidance effectively shuts out Nvidia and its AI chips from a lucrative market segment, including advanced models under US export controls that are nevertheless available in China via grey market channels. REUTERS
