U.S. Export Controls Require NVIDIA To Launch Slower Gaming Chips In China

(CTN News) – Nvidia, the prominent chipmaking company in the United States, is preparing to introduce a modified edition of a gaming processor in China that offers reduced performance.

This adjustment is being made to adhere to the export restrictions imposed by the U.S. government. A product page on Nvidia’s website specifically catering to Chinese consumers reveals that the upcoming Nvidia RTX 4090D, scheduled for release in January as stated by a spokesperson, will possess 11% fewer “CUDA” (Compute Unified Device Architecture) cores compared to the versions of the chip sold in other countries.

The RTX series represents advanced gaming GPUs, also known as graphics processing units. Essentially, Nvidia’s CUDA architecture serves as the GPU equivalent of CPU cores, which are responsible for processing tasks.

While Nvidia did not provide an immediate comment when approached by CNBC, a company representative informed Reuters that the chip has been meticulously designed to fully comply with the export controls imposed by the U.S. government.

According to Reuters, Nvidia has stated that it had extensive collaboration with the U.S. government during the development of its product.

However, the U.S. government has imposed export restrictions on China, which prevent Chinese companies from accessing advanced chips from American firms.

These export rules primarily target chips that enable AI applications, but gaming-focused processors are also affected as they have potential uses in artificial intelligence.

The RTX 4090, which utilizes AI to enhance performance, has been included in the list of banned U.S.-made chips.

As a result, Nvidia’s shares have experienced a significant surge in 2023, with prices more than tripling. This surge can be attributed, at least in part, to the high demand for AI, which has been fueled by the popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot.

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