Jakarta –
CEO Nvidia, Jensen Huangis reportedly planning to visit China at the end of January. The visit by the boss of the chip giant is seen as an attempt by the chip giant to regain access to the main market for its artificial intelligence (AI) chips.
Report Bloombergciting sources familiar with the plans, said Huang would attend a company event ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday and was expected to visit Beijing. However, the report did not specify whether he would meet senior Chinese officials.
This visit was carried out at Nvidia seeks to reopen the Chinese market, previously restricted by US export controls on advanced AI chips. Quoted by detikINET from India Times, the Trump administration last week allowed Nvidia to sell its H200 AI chip to China.
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The company is expected to restart deliveries despite pushback from those in Washington who oppose business ties with China. But the problem is, immediately after the US decision, Chinese customs officials reportedly stated that the H200 chip was not allowed to enter the country.
A number of reports say that customs officials were instructed that Nvidia H200 chips were not allowed to enter. Days after Chinese customs officials blocked the processor, suppliers of key components for the AI chips reportedly halted their production lines.
A recent Financial Times report, citing two people familiar with the matter, said that manufacturers of critical chip parts, including printed circuit boards (PCBs) needed to package H200 chips, were halting operations to avoid building up unsold stock.
Meanwhile, various reports say that although technology companies such as Alibaba, ByteDance and Tencent want to buy the H200 because of its performance, the Chinese government is pressuring them to prioritize domestic alternatives, such as Huawei’s Ascend chips, and avoid using them for purposes that could threaten national security.
According to the FT report, despite having ordered more than 2 million units of the H200, several Chinese customers canceled their orders due to the uncertainty.
(fyk/fay)
