Nvidia has confirmed that new export restrictions imposed by US President Joe Biden on China will block sales of two high-end artificial intelligence chips it created specifically for that market.
The A800 and H800 chips, developed to get around a ban imposed last October, have been proscribed under the new restrictions while one of its gaming chips will also be blocked, said the high-flying chip maker.
China and the US have been involved in tit-for-tat trade restrictions for months and the Chinese government responded with a statement that the move violates the principles of the market economy and fair competition.
For its part, the US said that China receiving the latest chip technology would enable it to upgrade its military, especially its use of acritical intelligence.
Nvidia’s H1000 and the related A1000 chips are the gold standard for training large-language AI models such as ChatGPT.
Limiting access to even the hobbled 800 series would put China at a considerable disadvantage on the global AI stage, analysts said.
And in an unprecedented move yesterday intelligence chiefs from the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand jointly publicly warned of the threat China poses to companies developing new technologies.
"China has long targeted businesses with a web of techniques all at once: cyber intrusions, human intelligence operations, seemingly innocuous corporate investments and transactions," said FBI General Director Christopher Wray.
"Every strand of that web had become more brazen, and more dangerous," he added.
As much of 25% of Nvidia’s revenue comes from China and ahead of trading in the US today its shares were down 3.5% at US$446.