Nvidia ‘s (NVDA) new disclosure on artificial intelligence chip sales to China is only moderately comforting, as questions about the world’s second-largest economy as a viable marketplace have yet to be resolved. In a securities filing Tuesday, Silicon Valley-based Nvidia said the U.S. government’s new restrictions on AI chip exports are “effective immediately,” instead of mid-November as first expected. Nvidia did not say what prompted the U.S. to move up the date of implementation. The Department of Commerce declined to comment. Still, the world’s most valuable semiconductor company assured investors that the sooner-than-expected implementation will not meaningfully impact its near-term financial results because demand for its AI chips is so strong in the rest of the world. That’s essentially the same assessment Nvidia offered when the tighter regulations were announced on Oct. 17 . “This is a problem. China is important for [Nvidia’s] long-term prospects,” Jim Cramer said Tuesday, suggesting the U.S. government and the company need to “have real talks” to search for a policy solution that enables Nvidia to sell its AI chips to consumer-focused Chinese tech giants, such as Alibaba . Jim acknowledged the Biden administration’s concerns about cutting-edge AI technology falling into the hands of the Chinese military. That is Washington’s stated reason for the export controls. “I would love it if they made a deal with China, and the [U.S.] government endorsed it, but not if it’s going to hurt” the U.S. militarily, he added. China questions The latest round of export controls limits Nvidia’s ability to sell multiple data-center chips to Chinese customers, including two products — the A800 and H800 — designed to comply with the Biden administration’s initial restrictions in 2022. The A800 and H800 are modified versions of Nvidia’s most cutting-edge AI chips — the A100 and H100 — which can be used in data centers to train large language models like the one…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply