At the 2024 Nvidia Developer Conference (GTC), NVIDIA unveiled its next-generation artificial intelligence GPU architecture, Blackwell. It was showcased in various forms, most notably in two chips.
The two main chips of the Blackwell platforms are the B100 and the B200, with powerful specifications aimed at AI solutions. As previously announced, the first Blackwell solutions will be available in the second half of this year and the demand is sky-high, but it seems that Jensen Huang’s team also plans to offer a variant compatible with US exports to China based on the same GPU architecture.
Recently, it was reported that NVIDIA’s H20 AI accelerator, based on the Hopper architecture, was having a positive response in the Chinese market after an initial unsuccessful launch.
This was due to Huawei’s inability to meet the high demand for AI in the domestic market, which led AI customers to seek an easily available solution in the form of H20.
The recent demand for these AI accelerators is expected to generate billions of dollars in revenue for NVIDIA, based on a variant with reduced specifications of the original design to meet the TPP requirements established by US authorities.
A chip that meets United States guidelines for the sale of GPUs in China
According to Reuters, NVIDIA is working on a new variant exclusively for China based on the new Blackwell GPU architecture. This accelerator will be the successor to the H20 and will be known as the B20. Various media platforms have been able to confirm this with not just one, but with three individual sources.
The arrival of NVIDIA’s Blackwell AI accelerators in China will be a massive business opportunity for the country. Its national companies, such as Huawei and Tencent, will face even greater competition instead of dominating the market, since they are currently the only providers of high-end AI in the country due to the restrictions imposed on NVIDIA.
The export-compatible offers from NVIDIA will shake things up even more, as H20 has surpassed one million sales in China this year and has generated over $12 billion in revenue.
In other news, the new Blackwell B20 AI accelerator will need to be significantly adjusted to meet the Total Processing Performance (TPP) requirements of US authorities, who have China under strict regulations.
