Nvidia's move to China

Nvidia will launch a new AI chipset for China at a significantly lower price than its recently curtailed H20 model, people with knowledge of the matter said, and plans to start mass production as early as June. The GPU, or graphics processing unit, will be part of Nvidia’s latest-generation Blackwell architecture AI processors and is expected to cost between $6,500 and $8,000, well below the $10,000-$12,000 that the H20 retails for, two of the sources said. The lower price reflects its weaker specs and simpler manufacturing requirements. It will be based on Nvidia’s RTX Pro 6000D, a server-class graphics processor, and will use traditional GDDR7 memory instead of more advanced high-bandwidth memory, according to the two sources. The new chip’s price, specifications and production timing were not previously reported. Three sources interviewed by Reuters for this article declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the media. a spokesperson said the company was still evaluating its “limited” options. “Until we agree on a new product design and receive approval from the U.S. government, we are effectively locked out of China’s $50 billion data center market.”TSMC declined to comment. DECREASING MARKET SHARE China remains a big market for Nvidia, accounting for 13 percent of its sales in the last fiscal year. Nvidia has been forced to adapt a GPU for the world’s second-largest economy for the third time after U.S. authorities sought to curb China’s technological development. Nvidia initially considered developing a stripped-down version of the H20 for China after the U.S. effectively banned the H20 in April, but that plan didn’t work out, the sources said. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said last week that the company’s older Hopper architecture, which the H20 uses, could no longer accommodate further modifications under current U.S. export restrictions. Reuters could not determine the final name of the product. Chinese brokerage GF Securities said in a note on Tuesday that the new GPU would likely be called the 6000D or B40, but did not disclose pricing or cite sources for the information.