Nvidia to launch cheaper Blackwell AI chip in China; Putin says Microsoft, Zoom should be ‘throttled' in Russia; Rest of the world hopes to lure U.S. scientific talent

The Hindu

27-05-2025

Nvidia to launch cheaper Blackwell AI chip in China
Nvidia plans to launch a new cheaper Blackwell AI chipset for China at a much lower price in comparison with the H20 chip with production set to begin by June. The GPU is expected to be priced between $6,500 and $8,000 less than the $10,000 and $12,000 range that the H20 was sold at. This could indicate that the chipset will have weaker specifications and simpler manufacturing requirements. The AI chip will be based on Nvidia's RTX Pro 6000D, a server-class graphics processor and will implement the traditional GDDR7 memory instead of more advanced high bandwidth memory. China accounted for 13% of Nvidia's sales in the past financial year. Nvidia's market share in China has sunk from 95% before 2022 to 50% presently, CEO Jensen Huang said.
Putin says Microsoft, Zoom should be 'throttled' in Russia
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signalled in a speech that foreign service providers like Microsoft and Zoom should be 'throttled' in Russia. He said that Russia had offered a favourable environment for these U.S.-based companies and not limited their operations in the country. However, he said that they were trying to 'throttle' Russia and now it was their turn to respond in kind. He also said that other companies which had chosen to exit Russia wouldn't receive a warm reception if they chose to return. Putin also called for the strengthening homegrown tech solutions to tackle competition from the U.S. A host of companies have chosen to suspend business or reduce it in Russia post their invasion of Ukraine.
Rest of the world hopes to lure U.S. scientific talent
The spending cuts imposed by Trump on scientific research has led to thousands of scientists losing their jobs or grants, a gap that the rest of the world is looking to cash in on. Programs from countries like Canada, France and Australia are all looking to woo U.S. talent for areas like medical research. Trump has made massive cuts at the National Academy of Sciences, the National Institutes of Health, NASA and other agencies while also slashing funding for private universities. These recruiters are all offering U.S. one thing to make the job appealing - academic freedom. The 'Safe Place for Science' program at Aix-Marseille University in France has reportedly received interest from U.S. scientists including AI researchers and astrophysicists.