Artificial Intelligence is the hot technology right now with gaming company Nvidia being one of the major players. However, Nvidia’s AI hardware is being forced to bow out of one of its major markets: China.
US bans Nvidia from selling AI hardware to China
The United States is imposing restrictions on Nvidia’s AI hardware, claims a report from Reuters. After years of selling its technologies to the region, the green gaming giant will no longer be allowed to offer tech with AI features.
Nvidia has been instructed not to allow two high-end AI chips to be sold in China. These include the A100 and H100 chips, both of which massively increase the speed of machine learning tasks.
These restrictions are part of tightened restrictions on exports to China. The United States believes that these chips are integral to military capabilities in fields such as AI facial recognition.
Nvidia claims the US’ blockade is to “address the risk that products may be used in, or diverted to, a 'military end use' or 'military end user' in China." America believes that the ban is to “keep advanced technologies out of the wrong hands.”
Nvidia isn’t alone
Despite being the main source for AI hardware, Nvidia isn’t the only company getting hit by this blockade. In fact, the company’s long-time rival AMD is also facing similar restrictions.
In the same report, it’s revealed that AMD are restricted from selling its MI250 chips to China. However, the company will still be able to sell its weaker MI100.
Nevertheless, the company has been hit by the restrictions. As China is a huge market for the company, the news did come with obvious consequences. After news broke, the company’s fell by 3.7%.
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China opposes the ban
As expected, China was not happy about the restrictions to AI imports. Artificial intelligence is a huge market in the region, even outside of military or governmental used. For example, everyday smartphones and upcoming consumer robotics all take advantage of the technology.
In a statement, China claims that the United States is abusing export control on the region.
“The U.S. continues to abuse export control measures to restrict exports of semiconductor-related items to China, which China firmly opposes,” said Shu Jieting, a Chinese commerce spokesperson.
China has, of course, been hit with similar restrictions before. For example, the country’s once-massive Huawei brand was hit hard by technological restrictions barring it from using any American technologies. It has not recovered.