NVIDIA and AMD cannot export AI accelerators to China without US government approval

Bad news for NVIDIA. The company led by Jen-Hsun Huang became known in a Disclosure to SEC It’s August 26 US government It’s “imposing a Condition of the new licenseEffective immediately, for any export to china (including Hong Kong) And Russia for A100 products and the future of H100DGX systems and other solutions equipped with A100, A100X and H100 accelerators are also involved.

The goal of the American summits is Avoiding the possibility of “the products in question being used or directed to a military end-use or military end-user in China and Russia” (Although remember that NVIDIA no longer works in Russia).

According to the company, the new license requirement It also affects future products With “peak performance and chip-to-chip I/O” equal to or greater than the roughly equivalent thresholds of the A100. In addition, a technology export license is required to support or develop the affected products.

The new standard can not only”Impact on the company’s ability to complete H100 development in a timely manner or support existing A100 customers‘, but also requires ‘relocation of certain operations out of China.’ NVIDIA is in contact with the US government and is seeking to obtain Exemptions for development activities and internal support.

NVIDIA cooperates with customers in China They seek to meet their planned or future purchases of data center solutions with “products not subject to new licensing requirements.” In short, NVIDIA can Offer to Chinese partners slower than A100 cardsHoping to find a solution that satisfies the interested customer.

If a customer requests products covered by the new licensing requirements, NVIDIA may “submit the licensing request to the customer but It has no guarantee that the US government will grant waivers or licenses, or that the government will act in a timely manner“.

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Thanks to this development, NVIDIA makes it known that the file Fiscal Third Quarter Estimates It can be ignored, as it included approx 400 million dollars in potential sales in China Which may be subject to new licensing requirements and thus They can go up in smoke If customers do not accept the alternative products, the government refuses the license or grants it too late.

However, the new licensing requirements are not just about NVIDIABut all American companies working in the field of artificial intelligence. a AMD spokesperson confirmed that it has received new export provisions that MI200 series accelerators prevent charging, while MI100 solutions should not fall within the scope of the standard. AMD does not currently believe that the new rules will have a material impact on its business. There is no news at the moment from Intel, which is still struggling with the release of the “Ponte Vecchio” accelerator directed primarily at the American supercomputer Aurora.