US to Block Sales of New Nvidia AI Chips to China

The US administration advised government agencies to block the sale of Nvidia’s reconfigured AI accelerator for data centres to the Chinese market. Federal agencies were instructed not to issue export licenses for the company’s scaled-down version of its advanced Blackwell chip, which was designed to circumvent US export controls.

Nvidia reportedly sent samples of its B30A chip to some customers in China for testing. The latest restrictions on Nvidia’s AI chips for China are not expected to have a material impact on the chipmaker’s revenue growth. The company earlier told analysts not to include any China sales of its data centre AI chips in their financial forecasts.

In late August, Nvidia forecast Q3 revenue to grow by more than 50% year-on-year, despite its outlook not including any sales of its H20 chips. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the company isn’t holding discussions with companies in China about selling its Blackwell AI chips.

Nvidia first reconfigured its high-end AI chip for the Chinese market after the US introduced export controls on AI chips in October 2023. The US later blocked sales of the H20, before Nvidia reached an agreement with the government in August to restart shipments to China. Meanwhile, the Cyberspace Administration of China advised domestic companies in September not to purchase Nvidia’s China-specific GPU.