US giant Nvidia Corp, the world’s most valuable chipmaker, is selling a less-capable version of its best graphics product for video gamers in China, after Washington tightened restrictions on what the company can market in that country.
The version of the GTX 4090 D chip that is listed for sale on Nvidia’s China Web site has about 10 percent fewer processing cores than the 4090 that is sold in other countries.
“The GeForce RTX 4090 D has been designed to comply with US government export controls and will only be available at retail in China,” a Nvidia spokesperson said in an e-mail.
Photo: I-Hwa Cheng, AFP
The company’s chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) has said he would produce versions of his market-leading products for China that comply with rules imposed by the administration of US President Joe Biden on exports to that country.
The US, seeking to slow down the advancement of China’s artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, is limiting access to specialized chips in that market.
The company said it “extensively engaged” with the US government while developing the graphics product, which is to be available next month.
Compared with the 4090 sold elsewhere, the China model will also have fewer processing subunits that are useful for accelerating AI workloads, Nvidia said.
US officials, who have cited national security concerns, are more interested in Nvidia’s AI accelerators, a range that is currently topped by the H100. That type of chip, which is based on technology used in graphics cards, has become the basis of an explosion in AI-capable hardware by owners of large data centers.
When US export rules were tightened last year, Nvidia introduced less capable versions of its chips for China. The US clamped down again in October by further reducing performance thresholds. Nvidia’s leadership responded by saying the company would again redo its offerings for the Asian country, the largest market for chips, to make them compliant with the new rules.
Nvidia shares rose less than 1 percent to US$497.10 at 12:25pm local time in New York. The stock has more than tripled this year, making Nvidia by far the best-performing semiconductor stock this year and the industry’s first company with a market value of US$1 trillion.
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