Nvidia reportedly designing powerful new AI chip for China

Nvidia is reportedly working on a new AI chip for China that is more powerful than the H20 chip it currently sells to the country.

The new product is tentatively called the B30A, Reuters reported, citing people familiar, and it is thought to be based on Nvidia’s Blackwell chip architecture.

When asked about the new chip in a CNBC interview , Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick did not rule out allowing Nvidia’s chief executive Jensen Huang to sell the more powerful product to China.

“Of course, he would like to sell a new chip to China,” Lutnick said. “I’ve listened to him pitch the president, and the president listens to our great technology companies, and he’ll decide how he wants to play.”

In April, the U.S. Commerce Department banned Nvidia from selling its H20 chips to China, citing the need to safeguard “national and economic security.”

Last year, Nvidia booked roughly $17 billion from the Chinese market — about 13% of its total revenue. But the export ban imposed by the Trump administration in April put it on the defensive, with Nvidia taking a $5.5 billion write-down on stranded H20 inventory and warning of billions in lost sales.

The Trump administration reversed its ban in July . The reversal was part of a broader de-escalation between the two countries ahead of a potential fall summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Lutnick has previously said the administration changed course so that China would still be “addicted” to using U.S. technology.

Earlier in August, the U.S. government announced a deal that would have Nvidia and another chipmaker, Advanced Micro Devices, pay 15% of their revenues from sales in China, in return for being able to sell chips there.

“We evaluate a variety of products for our roadmap, so that we can be prepared to compete to the extent that governments allow,” Nvidia said in a statement.

“Everything we offer is with the full approval of the applicable authorities and designed solely for beneficial commercial use.”