A less powerful iteration of a gaming computer, designed to comply with US export regulations and suitable for sale in China, has been revealed by Nvidia, a leading AI chip manufacturer in the country.
The GeForce RTX 4090 D chip is set to be released in January, although Nvidia is encountering challenges as major cloud companies in China have expressed reluctance to procure these chips.
Reports from The Wall Street Journal indicate that tech giants such as Alibaba Group, Tencent, Baidu, and ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, have signaled a decrease in their orders from the American tech giant due to the unavailability of its most powerful chips.
By opting for lower-grade chips, these companies are narrowing the performance gap compared to domestically produced Chinese alternatives, enabling them to explore in-house chip development.
The prospect of expanded US trade restrictions is also causing concern among Taiwanese enterprises.
The Biden Administration’s implementation of trade limitations in October aimed at curbing China’s semiconductor industry underscores its objective to impede the country’s technological advancement.
Consequently, tech corporations are preparing for a scenario where Nvidia’s chip market penetration diminishes.
Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, likened the US export constraints to being “handcuffed” in a recent interview with the Financial Times.
Huang revealed that China has been a pivotal market for Nvidia, contributing approximately 20% of the company’s profits, as reported by Reuters.
Moreover, the California-based company holds a dominant market share of over 90% in China’s $7 billion AI chip sector.
