According to an SEC filing from NVIDIA, the US government now requires companies to obtain a license to export H20 integrated circuits and any other products that achieve the same performance benchmarks. The filing states that “the license requirement addresses the risk that the covered products may be used in, or diverted to, a supercomputer in China.” Mainland China is not the only place targeted by this license; NVIDIA will also require permission to sell the H20 to the territories of Hong Kong and Macau as well as to nations with the D:5 designation as US Arms Embargo Countries.
The H20 chips are currently the most advanced chips that can be sold to select international markets under present laws and they are powerful enough to be used for artificial intelligence applications. NVIDIA has wanted the ability to retain Chinese customers for these products and last week, it seemed like the company may have gotten a reprieve on new restrictions. However, it appears that the new license requirement “will be in effect for the indefinite future.”
NVIDIA said in the SEC filing that it now expects to report about $5.5 billion in charges related to “inventory, purchase commitments and related reserves” associated with the H20 circuits in the results for its current fiscal quarter.