If you're aware of what Nvidia's H20 chips are, there's a good chance you're sick of hearing about Nvidia's H20 chips. Well, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but we aren't done yet, as some Chinese firms are reportedly still waiting on their preorders.
As reported by Reuters, and citing "four people with knowledge of procurement discussions", Chinese firms like ByteDance (the owner of TikTok and Pico) are waiting on Nvidia's AI chips. They reportedly ordered them after the US government allowed the sale of the chip in China back in July.
The H20 chip is effectively a downgraded version of the top-of-the-line H100 GPU, which is mostly used to power AI workloads within beastly servers.
Reuters notes that, according to those it spoke to, these same Chinese firms are keeping a close eye on Nvidia in the hopes of procuring its next AI chip, code-named B301. This is reportedly being developed on Blackwell architecture (the same architecture in the RTX 50-series).
Also according to Reuters, three sources have stated that Nvidia's chips are currently performing better than domestic alternatives. This same report claims that Nvidia had somewhere between 600,000 to 700,000 H20 chips and has asked TSMC to step up production in July. However, that doesn't paint the full picture.
Here's a very quick timeline of the Nvidia H20 chip in recent months:
- In May, export controls meant that the H20 chip was dead in the water for Nvidia.
- By July, the US had allowed Nvidia to sell H20 chips, but it would be taking a cut in return,
- In the middle of August, Chinese data center operators were given orders to get 50% of their chips from domestic manufacturers
- In late August, Nvidia paused making the H20 chip because the Chinese government didn't want firms using them. Firms that still wanted to use them were opened up to scrutiny from the Chinese government.
China's distrust of H20 chips seemed in part linked to the fact that some US politicians were arguing to add backdoors into Nvidia's tech. Nvidia did state 'There is no such thing as a good secret backdoor' and denied such a technology being in its devices, but the Chinese government does appear to want to step up its own production.
Given how unpredictable America's stance on tariffs has been over the last few months, it wouldn't be unreasonable for those outside of the US to feel like they may not be able to fully rely on production from within the States. AI is a new frontier for all countries right now, and they're all competing to win the AI arms race.
