This move comes in sequence of the Chinese government outright banning the usage of Nvidia AI chips. The ban immediately pushed AI datacenter power usage by a reported 30 to 50%, as the efficiency of Chinese chips lags behind that of Nvidia's H20. It's worth noting that H20 is from the Grace Hopper generation rather than the fresh Blackwell offerings. The newer chips are export-controlled by the U.S. , but the power efficiency delta between Blackwell and Chinese chips would be greater still.
China is in the middle of a push for independence from US chip companies, while simultaneously boosting national chip production. The country has long since lagged in chip development but has made long strides in the past decade. Even if the national chips aren't yet quite comparable to Nvidia and AMD's offerings, the speed at which the country is catching up is impressive. Huawei, Cambricon, Alibaba, and Biren all make AI accelerators, with Huawei in the national lead with its Ascend 910C chip .
Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News , or add us as a preferred source , to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/big-tech/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/big-tech/chinese-provinces-offer-steep-power-discounts-to-ai-companies-using-china-made-chips-country-continues-its-aggressive-push-towards-ai-independence-and-homegrown-silicon#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
- Nvidia unexpectedly replaces a damaged RTX 5090 GPU despite user blunder — $1,999 flagship GPU escapes paperweight status against all odds
- Fueling Economic Development Across the US: How NVIDIA Is Empowering States, Municipalities and Universities to Drive Innovation
- Just $109 nets you a 1000W power supply from ASRock, knocking almost 1/3 off the price — the Steel Legend SL-1000G has plenty of power to throw at the latest an
- AMD reportedly prepping new X3D chip with higher clock speeds – Ryzen 7 9700X3D spotted in benchmarks that rival Ryzen 7 9800X3D, new Strix Halo chip also unear
- ‘China is going to win the AI race’ — Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang decries the price of electricity in the US, contrasts it with China's subsidized pricing
Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.