Nvidia’s new China-ready GPUs face uncertainty as Washington signals more chip restrictions
- Nvidia has not set a launch date for B20 GPU designed to get around export restrictions because of uncertainty around Washington’s plans to update its rules
The California-based chip giant has developed the B20 for Chinese customers, which is a downgraded version of its most powerful Blackwell B200 graphics processing unit (GPU) launched in March, according to two sources, including one person with direct knowledge of the matter.
Nvidia originally planned to start shipping the new chip in the fourth quarter, but that timeline may no longer be realistic as new concerns have risen that an expansion of export controls reportedly being considered by Washington could affect the product, one of the sources said, along with another person familiar with the matter.
Despite compromised computing capabilities, the B20 will compensate with improved interconnection bandwidth, which allows binding multiple cards together to make up for the lower computing power of a single GPU, according to the people.