China Escalates NVIDIA Restrictions Stops Orders for AI GPUs
NVIDIA is facing a giant challenge in China, as the regulators of this country seem to be moving toward the blockade of the company's AI hardware. According to the FT report, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has directed large domestic clients like Tencent and ByteDance to halt testing and ordering of NVIDIA RTX 6000D GPU; this action is bound to block the sales of millions of these chips.
Domestic Technology Being Aggressively Favored
The directive is called one of the boldest moves from China against NVIDIA up to now, in addition to the earlier ones that sought to restrict shipments of the H20 AI chip on the grounds of possible security concerns. The country now seems to have confidence that its own AI chips can hold ground against NVIDIA's export-controlled ones. This conviction is leading to the drive to stop orders from NVIDIA in an effort to cut down on dependency on Western technology.
The report indicates that advances from local companies such as Huawei and Cambricon are essential to this strategy; they are already viewed as supplying competent in-house AI hardware.
NVIDIA's CEO Responds with Disappointment
NVIDIA's CEO Jensen Huang addressed the situation during his state visit to the UK. He acknowledged the larger geopolitical issues but shared some comments of his own.
We can only be in service of a market if the country wants us to be. I’m disappointed with what I see. But they have larger agendas to work out, between China and the US, and I’m understanding of that. We are patient about it.
China's Production Bottleneck Continues to Present an Obstacle
While China is sure of the capability of its domestic AI chips, mass production, an area in which it really faces a bottleneck for supplying vital components for AI hardware, remains a big challenge. This goes beyond semiconductors to include other major components, such as High Bandwidth Memory (HBM).
So, while China's domestic chips may be approaching performance parity with NVIDIA's H20, mass production is the issue that needs to be resolved to sever the dependence on foreign suppliers completely. Growing resistance from Beijing ushers in a complicated future for both NVIDIA and the ambitions of China in AI.
