Nvidia Corporation's CEO states bluntly, "We will not establish operations in regions where our presence is unwelcome."
Nvidia's AI Chips Banned in China: A Shift Towards Domestic Technology
In a significant move, China has expanded its ban on Nvidia's AI chips to include the H20 chip, in addition to the RTX Pro 6000D. This decision comes after Chinese regulators concluded that domestic chips have reached performance levels comparable to Nvidia's products.
The ban was imposed following export controls that led to a degradation in the performance of the nvda chips sold to China, eventually resulting in a complete ban. Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, expressed his disappointment with the ban but emphasized Nvidia's continued support for the Chinese government and Chinese companies.
Huang reiterated that the RTX Pro 6000D, an AI product customized for the Chinese market, has been halted from testing and orders by companies like ByteDance and Alibaba, as instructed by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC). The CAC aims to reduce dependence on foreign technology and promote domestic chip manufacturers.
Despite the ban, Nvidia has had a long-standing relationship with China, with the firm selling GPUs to China for about 30 years. Huang noted Nvidia's extensive investment in Britain's AI infrastructure, including 120,000 GPUs in collaboration with homegrown Nscale and Coreweave.
In a separate development, Huang announced that the UK is going to be an AI superpower, following a 'historic' tech deal between Britain and the US worth £31bn. This deal encompasses AI, quantum computing, and advanced nuclear energy.
Regulators in China have summoned domestic chipmakers like Cambricon and Huawei, as well as Baidu and Alibaba, to report on the competitiveness of their AI processors. Huang explained that the H20 chips are not of any national security concern, but China wants to protect AI technology for itself.
Despite the challenges, Nvidia continues to have longstanding relationships with China, and Huang advocated for global collaboration on AI. He stated that it's safer for the world if China and the US collaborate rather than isolate. The future of AI in China and its relationships with tech giants like Nvidia remains to be seen.
