(By Fang Zhou, Editor/Lv Dong)

Just after the exposure of new China-specific chips, NVIDIA, which is caught in a "backdoor" storm, has recently been reported to have suspended the production of H20 chips.

On the afternoon of August 21st, local time, the tech media "the Information" cited sources reporting that NVIDIA had instructed key component suppliers such as Samsung Electronics of South Korea and Amkor Technology of the United States to suspend production related to the H20 chips. According to the information, Amkor Technology is responsible for the packaging of this chip, while Samsung Electronics provides high-bandwidth memory chips.

Currently, this news has been reprinted by well-known media outlets such as Reuters, Bloomberg, and CNBC. In addition, Reuters cited sources confirming that NVIDIA has asked Foxconn to suspend the production of H20 chips.

Regarding the relevant reports, NVIDIA stated in a statement: "We continuously manage our supply chain to respond to market conditions." However, it refused to provide further details.

According to the introduction, the H20 is an AI accelerator designed specifically for the Chinese market in late 2023 to comply with U.S. export controls, a "downgraded version" with performance ranging from 15% to 30% of its flagship product, H100, but accounting for 80% of NVIDIA's revenue in China. In April this year, the Trump administration required NVIDIA to prohibit the sale of H20 chips in China without its permission.

In July, during his visit to China, NVIDIA CEO Huang Renxun announced that, after approval from the United States, the sale of H20 in China would be resumed, and a new GPU fully compatible with the Chinese market would be launched. However, the latest news indicates that in order to obtain export licenses, NVIDIA had to pay a 15% "protection fee" to the Trump administration.

Two insiders told the Financial Times that after Huang Renxun's visit to China, some Chinese customers showed interest in its products, and then NVIDIA notified its manufacturing partner TSMC to restart its H20 production line.

NVIDIA founder and CEO Huang Renxun, NVIDIA official website

However, to the surprise of foreign media, the Chinese market showed a lukewarm response to the resumption of exports of the H20 chips.

Analysts pointed out that during the months-long "window period" after the U.S. government banned the export of H20 chips in April, domestic companies seized the opportunity to "attack H20". In the first half of this year, companies have all turned to domestic manufacturers such as Cambricon and Huawei. An industry insider revealed that domestic technology companies have gradually adapted to this change, especially in the field of artificial intelligence computing power.

For a long time, domestic companies have been continuously pushing to break through the autonomous chip industry and reduce reliance on U.S. technology. According to statistics from third-party research institution IDC, the proportion of domestic computing power in the Chinese data center acceleration card market increased from 14% to 34.6% from 2023 to 2024. Latest forecasts indicate that by 2027, the proportion of Chinese domestic AI chips will surge from 17% in 2023 to 55%, while the proportion of U.S. suppliers such as NVIDIA and AMD will drop from 83% to 45%.

Even more absurdly, recent reports indicated that NVIDIA plans to pass on the costs caused by the additional 15% fees paid to Trump to Chinese customers. On August 18th, Gene Munster, co-founder of Deepwater Asset Management, disclosed that due to the agreement with Trump, NVIDIA's gross margin would be affected. To maintain its gross margin, NVIDIA may increase the price of H20 by 18%.

Nevertheless, despite NVIDIA's efforts to recover market share in China, Chinese customers are unwilling to buy a product with inferior performance and high prices, let alone the fact that its chips have recently been exposed to serious security risks.

On July 31, 2025, the Cyberspace Administration of China held a meeting with NVIDIA, requiring the company to explain and submit relevant proof materials regarding the security risks of the H20 computing chips sold to China. The related news caused a stir in the market.

In addition, Yuyuantan Tian published a long article addressing the "backdoor" issue of the H20 chip, pointing out that the U.S. had once considered setting up backdoors in AI chips systematically. The U.S. also specifically mentioned that if companies cooperate with the U.S. government to install backdoors, the U.S. government could exclude them from export controls, including relaxing export restrictions on "low-risk Chinese customers." Yuyuantan Tian criticized directly, stating that the H20 chip is neither environmentally friendly, nor advanced, nor safe.

Although NVIDIA responded that there are no backdoors, termination switches, or monitoring software in its chips, the domestic market still hasn't dispelled concerns about the safety of NVIDIA chips.

Notably, in the context of unresolved backdoor issues and widespread doubts about product safety in the domestic market, NVIDIA has recently been exposed to be advancing a new China-specific chip.

On the afternoon of August 19th, two insiders from NVIDIA told Reuters that the company is developing a new artificial intelligence chip for the Chinese market based on its latest Blackwell architecture, claiming its performance will be stronger than H20.

Related information states that the new chip is temporarily named B30A, will use a single-die design, and its original computing power may be only half of NVIDIA's flagship product, B300. It is expected to be equipped with high-bandwidth memory and NVIDIA's NVLink technology. NVIDIA has planned to deliver samples to Chinese customers and conduct tests as early as next month.

Some opinions suggest that NVIDIA's suspension of H20 chip production may be to make way for its new product, B30A.

However, analysts point out that before NVIDIA resolves the security concerns of its AI chips in the Chinese market, state-owned enterprises or private enterprises with official connections will not rashly purchase its products.

This article is an exclusive article by Observers, and it is not allowed to be reprinted without authorization.

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7541236570741948937/

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