The company is offering a new advanced chip, called the A800, thought to be the first reported effort by a US company to provide advanced processors for China that follow new trade rules introduced by the US government last month.
Both Nvidia and AMD had warned that these new rules could cost them hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, but it appears that at least Nvidia has found a way round them.
According to reports by Reuters Chinese computer sellers are advertising products with the new chip.
The US regulations essentially banned export of microchips and equipment to produce advanced chips by Chinese chipmakers. The move was seen as an attempt to slow the development of the Chinese semiconductor industry.
Nvidia's data centre chip, the A100, were added to the export control list by the US Commerce Department but the new A800 chip is now being used to in its place. Both are GPUs, or graphics processing units.
"The Nvidia A800 GPU, which went into production in Q3, is another alternative product to the Nvidia A100 GPU for customers in China. The A800 meets the US Government’s clear test for reduced export control and cannot be programmed to exceed it," according to a Nvidia spokesperson, who spoke to Reuters.
Did Nvidia engage with the US Commerce Department about this? Does this suggest that the new trading regulations will simply be by-passed?
Nvidia declined comment on whether it consulted the Commerce Department about this new chip, but it raises questions around the approach being taken – both by the government and the companies involved.
How many others will simply look to get round the export ban?
