Nvidia Takes on Huawei in AI Semiconductor Market with Budget-Friendly Chips for China

Nvidia is reportedly selling a new artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor to Chinese customers that has been significantly downgraded in performance to comply with U.S. semiconductor regulations. The semiconductor is expected to be cheaper than Huawei’s products, albeit with inferior functionality.

Reuters quoted an insider on the 1st, saying that Nvidia has started taking pre-orders for the new AI semiconductor in the Chinese market. Following the U.S. Department of Commerce’s restriction on exporting low-performance AI semiconductor chips to China in October last year, Nvidia has been developing low-performance AI semiconductors for export to China.

The semiconductors Nvidia will release are known to have three types, H20, L20, and L2, each with differentiated performance. Only the specifications and price of the H20, which has the best performance, have been revealed, and it is expected to be supplied at a lower cost than Huawei’s competitive product, the 910B.

Reuters reported that the H20 is expected to be sold by local distributors for between $12,000 and $15,000. The price of the highest specification AI semiconductor, 910B, released by Huawei in China, is 120,000 yuan.

However, Reuters reported that the H20 has some functionalities that are inferior to the 910B semiconductor released by Huawei.