CIOTech Outlook Team | Tuesday, 29 July 2025, 05:45 IST
Nvidia has ordered 300,000 H20 chipsets from TSMC, driven by robust Chinese demand. This follows the Trump administration’s decision this month to lift an April ban on H20 sales to China, initially imposed to restrict advanced AI chips for national security reasons. The H20, designed for the Chinese market after 2023 U.S. export restrictions, has less computing power than Nvidia’s H100 or Blackwell series sold globally.
The new orders will supplement Nvidia’s existing 600,000 to 700,000 H20 chip inventory. In 2024, Nvidia sold approximately 1 million H20 chips, per Semi Analysis. CEO Jensen Huang stated during a Beijing visit that H20 order volumes would determine production resumption, noting a nine-month supply chain restart. Previously, Nvidia informed customers of limited H20 stocks and no immediate plans to restart production, as reported by The Information.
Also Read: Huawei Unveils AI Computing System to Rival Nvidia Flagship
Nvidia's H20 chips can only be shipped in the United States when it gets export licenses yet to be granted by the Commerce Department. Nvidia has also requested its Chinese customers, such as Tencent, Byte Dance, and Alibaba, to make forecasts regarding order volumes. Such companies raised H20 orders prior to the generic ban in April to support the cost-effective AI models that DeepSeek developed on their own.
This move of the U.S. to permit the sale of H20 is associated with the fact that the two countries are negotiating at the time of developing trade tensions on the issues of rare earth magnets, which are used in many industries. Nonetheless, this action attracted a bipartisan outcry among lawmakers in the United States worried about the possession of AI technologies by China.
