According to NVIDIA‘s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US government requires companies to obtain a license to export H20 integrated circuits and any other products that achieve the same performance. The statement notes that “the license requirement addresses the risk that the covered products could be used in or diverted to supercomputers in China.” Mainland China is not the only place covered by this license; NVIDIA will also need permission to sell H20 in Hong Kong and Macau, as well as to countries designated D:5 as countries subject to the US arms embargo.
The H20 chips are currently the most advanced chips that can be sold to some international markets under current laws, and they are powerful enough to be used for artificial intelligence applications. NVIDIA wanted to be able to retain Chinese customers for these products, and last week it seemed that the company may have gotten a reprieve from the new restrictions. However, it appears that the new license requirements “will remain in effect indefinitely.”
NVIDIA said that it now plans to report a charge of approximately USD 5.5 billion for “inventory, purchase commitments and related reserves” related to the H20 schemes in the current fiscal quarter.
