The US government has blocked Nvidia from selling some of its artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China – including a chip it engineering specifically to comply with a previous US injunction against providing top-end chips to China.
In a new move believing to be aimed at cutting China off from leading US technologies, Nvidia will now require a licence to sell these and other AI chips.
The move is set to cost Nvidia about $5,5-billion that it’s invested in developing the H20 chip for Chinese customers.
It designed and developed this chip after the US imposed rules in 2022 preventing it from supplying its top AI chip, the H100, to China.
The company also risks losing the key Chinese market to Huawei, which could then gain traction as an AI chip supplier in the rest of the world.