To keep up with the U.S. export restrictions on advanced semiconductors, NVIDIA and AMD are reportedly tweaking their AI GPU game to stay in the Chinese market—without violating any rules. According to Digitimes (via the tech grapevine), both companies are prepping new, regulation-friendly chips specifically designed for China.
NVIDIA’s offering? A scaled-down AI GPU called the “B20.” It’s not as beastly as the banned H20s, but it’s enough to get some AI training and inference done without tripping over U.S. restrictions. AMD isn’t sitting this one out either—they’re rolling in with the Radeon AI PRO R9700, a workstation GPU aimed at AI workloads that plays nice with current export rules.
And timing? It’s all set to kick off in July.
This pivot isn’t just a “we’ll circle back later” situation. It’s damage control in real-time. Just this week, NVIDIA revealed they took a massive $4.5 billion hit in Q1 thanks to licensing limits blocking H20 chip sales in China. And because of those same rules, they had another $2.5 billion worth of chips sitting idle, unable to ship. Oof. Looking ahead, they’re bracing for an $8 billion hit in Q2 revenue from these restrictions alone.
So what’s the move? Adapt. Fast.
Rumor has it NVIDIA’s also cooking up a budget-friendly Blackwell-based AI chip for China—estimated to be in the $6,500–$8,000 price range, compared to the $10,000–$12,000 H20s. Not cheap, but definitely strategic.
The bottom line: The AI arms race isn’t slowing down, but for companies caught between innovation and regulation, it’s now a game of chess—not speed. And NVIDIA and AMD? They’re still very much in the match—just playing by a different rulebook.
