Chinese firms like ByteDance are reportedly still expecting their preorders for Nvidia’s AI chips, despite pressure from the Chinese government which has discouraged purchases of these technologies.

According to a report by Reuters, several Chinese companies are maintaining their interest in Nvidia’s chips, which they expect to use for AI workloads. The urgency for these chips appears to have arisen after the US government lifted some restrictions on their sale in July.

Nvidia AI Chips (Image credit: Nvidia)

These companies desire Nvidia’s H20 chip, a variant of the more powerful H100 GPU designed for high-performance AI processing. Reports indicate that Nvidia had around 600,000 to 700,000 H20 units and urged TSMC to increase production in July.

China’s reluctance towards these chips seems to correlate with concerns about potential surveillance features incorporated by the US. Nvidia has denied such allegations, emphasizing, ‘There is no such thing as a good secret backdoor.’
China appears to be ramping up its domestic chip production as a countermeasure to these international pressures.