China is urging local companies to avoid using the H20 processors of the US Nvidia Corp., especially for government needs, Bloomberg reports.
Nvidia has created a specialized version of its AI chips for the Chinese market (H20), taking into account the restrictions previously imposed by Washington on the supply of semiconductor components to China. However, in April, the US authorities banned Nvidia from selling these chips to China without special permission.
On Friday, it became known that the US Department of Commerce began issuing Nvidia licenses to supply H20 to China. Over the weekend, the US Department of Commerce also started issuing licenses to supply MI308 chips from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) to China.
According to sources, in recent weeks, the Chinese authorities have sent messages to a wide range of companies urging them not to use H20 chips. The most stringent recommendations apply to the use of the processors for any government or national security-related tasks, both at state-owned enterprises and in private companies. One of the sources noted that the recommendations also apply to AMD chips.
The letters to the companies are accompanied by several questions, including why they prefer Nvidia chips to alternative solutions from local manufacturers and whether this is a necessary choice given the existing Chinese counterparts.
The companies are also asked whether they have identified security problems in Nvidia equipment, the sources said.