Latest news with #stateenterprises
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
China urges local firms not to use Nvidia's H20 chips, Bloomberg News reports
(Reuters) -Chinese authorities have urged local companies to avoid using Nvidia's H20 chips, particularly for government-related purposes, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, a move likely to hamper the company efforts to service the key China market. Several companies were sent official notices discouraging the use of the H20, a less-advanced chip, mainly for any government or national security-related work by state enterprises or private companies, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. Reuters could not immediately confirm the report. Nvidia said on Tuesday the H20 chip was "not a military product or for government infrastructure". "China has ample supply of domestic chips to meet its needs. It won't and never has relied on American chips for government operations, just like the U.S. government would not rely on chips from China," the statement said. Washington last month lifted a ban on the sale of the H20 chip in China and it is now the most advanced artificial intelligence chip that Nvidia is allowed to sell there. The move comes after reports in China's state media of security concerns around H20 chips. Nvidia has said there are no "backdoors" that would allow remote access or control. Beijing is pressuring China's large tech firms such as Alibaba and ByteDance over orders of H20 chips, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday. The companies have been asked by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to explain why they need to order H20 chips instead of using domestic alternatives, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. Some tech companies were planning to reduce their orders as a result of the questions from regulators, the report said. The Information reported the companies along with Tencent Holdings, have been ordered by China's internet regulator in the past two weeks to suspend their purchases of Nvidia chips altogether, citing data security concerns with the chips. The directive came from the Cyberspace Administration of China and was communicated at a meeting the regulator convened with over a dozen Chinese tech firms, shortly after the Trump administration reversed the export curbs on H20 chips, according to the report. The regulator told the companies that new chip purchases had to be suspended until it concluded an investigation into potential security risks from the chips, according to the report, which cited people familiar with the matter. Alibaba, ByteDance and Tencent did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comments. Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment on The Information's and the Financial Times' reports. China is also trying to promote the use of domestically-developed technologies including AI chips made by Huawei, the Chinese rival with which Nvidia is battling for AI chip dominance. Shares in China's top contract chipmaker SMIC rose 5% on Tuesday on expectations of rising demand for locally-produced chips. The H20 curb also follows comments on Monday from U.S. President Donald Trump, suggesting that he might allow Nvidia to sell a scaled-down version of its advanced Blackwell chip in China, despite deep-seated fears in Washington that Beijing could harness U.S. AI capabilities to supercharge its military. China's foreign ministry said on Tuesday it hoped the U.S. would take practical action to maintain the stability and smooth operation of the global chip supply chain. The Trump administration last week confirmed an unprecedented deal with Nvidia and AMD to give the U.S. government 15% of revenue from sales of some advanced chips in China. China's renewed guidance on avoiding chips also affects AI accelerators from Advanced Micro Devices, the Bloomberg report said, adding that it was unclear whether any notices from Chinese authorities specifically mentioned AMD's MI308 chip. AMD did not respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.
Bloomberg
7 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Nvidia H20 China Pushback
China has urged local companies to avoid using Nvidia's H20 processors, particularly for government-related purposes, complicating the chipmaker's attempts to recoup billions in lost China revenue as well as the Trump administration's unprecedented push to turn those sales into a US government windfall. Over the past few weeks, Chinese authorities have sent notices to a range of firms discouraging use of the less-advanced semiconductors, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named discussing sensitive information. The guidance was particularly strong against the use of H20s for any government or national security-related work by state enterprises or private companies, the people said. Host of Bloomberg Technology Ed Ludlow joins Stephen Carroll and Jack Sidders (Source: Bloomberg)
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
China Urges Firms Not to Use Nvidia H20 Chips in New Guidance
(Bloomberg) -- China has urged local companies to avoid using Nvidia Corp.'s H20 processors, particularly for government-related purposes, complicating the chipmaker's attempts to recoup billions in lost China revenue as well as the Trump administration's unprecedented push to turn those sales into a US government windfall. Over the past few weeks, Chinese authorities have sent notices to a range of firms discouraging use of the less-advanced semiconductors, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named discussing sensitive information. The guidance was particularly strong against the use of H20s for any government or national security-related work by state enterprises or private companies, the people said. Sunseeking Germans Face Swiss Backlash Over Alpine Holiday Congestion New York Warns of $34 Billion Budget Hole, Biggest Since 2009 Crisis To Head Off Severe Storm Surges, Nova Scotia Invests in 'Living Shorelines' Chicago Schools' Bond Penalty Widens as $734 Million Gap Looms A New Stage for the Theater That Gave America Shakespeare in the Park In addition to Nvidia, Beijing's overall push affects AI accelerators from Advanced Micro Devices Inc., one of the people said, though it's unclear whether any letters specifically mentioned AMD's MI308 chip. Both companies recently secured Washington's approval to resume lower-end AI chip sales to China, on the controversial and legally questionable condition that they give the US government a 15% cut of the related revenue. Now, Nvidia and AMD face the challenge that their Chinese customers are under Beijing's pressure not to make those purchases. Some of Beijing's letters to companies included a series of questions, according to one of the people, such as why they buy Nvidia H20 chips over local alternatives, whether that's a necessary choice given domestic options, and whether they've found any security issues in the Nvidia hardware. The notices coincide with state media reports that cast doubt on the security and reliability of H20 processors. Chinese regulators have raised those concerns directly with Nvidia, which has repeatedly denied that its chips contain such vulnerabilities. Right now, China's most stringent chip guidance is limited to sensitive applications, a situation that bears similarities to the way Beijing restricted Tesla Inc. vehicles and Apple Inc. iPhones in certain institutions and locations over security concerns. China's government also at one point barred the use of Micron Technology Inc. chips in critical infrastructure. Still, it's possible that Beijing may extend its heavier-handed Nvidia and AMD guidance to a wider range of settings, according to one person with direct knowledge of the deliberations, who said that those conversations are in early stages. AMD declined to comment, while Nvidia said in a statement that 'the H20 is not a military product or for government infrastructure.' China has ample supplies of domestic chips, Nvidia said, and 'won't and never has relied on American chips for government operations.' China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Cyberspace Administration of China did not respond to faxed requests for comment on this story, which is based on interviews with more than a half-dozen people familiar with Beijing's policy discussions. The White House did not respond to a request for comment outside normal business hours. The Chinese government's posture could make it more difficult for Nvidia and AMD to sell their hardware into the world's largest market for semiconductors. It also raises questions about the Trump administration's explanation for why the US is allowing those exports mere months after effectively banning such sales. Multiple senior US officials have said their policy reversal was part of a trade accord with China, but Beijing has publicly indicated that the resumed H20 shipments were not part of any bilateral deal. China's recent notices to companies suggest that the Asian country may not have desired such a concession from Washington in the first place. Beijing's concerns are twofold. For starters, Chinese officials are worried that Nvidia chips could have location-tracking and remote shutdown capabilities — a suggestion that Nvidia has vehemently denied. Still, Trump officials are actively exploring whether location-tracking could be used to help curtail suspected smuggling of restricted components into China, and lawmakers have introduced a bill that would require location verification for advanced AI chips. Second, Beijing is intensely focused on developing its domestic chip capabilities, and wants Chinese companies to shift away from Western chips in favor of local offerings. Officials have previously urged Chinese firms to choose domestic semiconductors over Nvidia H20 processors, Bloomberg reported last September, and have introduced energy efficiency standards that the H20 chip does not meet. But Beijing has stopped short of outright banning the hardware, which Nvidia designed specifically for Chinese customers to abide by years of US curbs on sales of advanced chips to the Asian country. The H20 chip has less computational power than Nvidia's top offerings, but its strong memory bandwidth is quite well suited to the inference stage of AI development, when models recognize patterns and draw conclusions. That's made it a desirable product to companies like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. in China, where domestic chip champion Huawei Technologies Co. is struggling to produce enough advanced components to meet market demand. By one estimate from Biden officials — who considered but did not implement controls on H20 sales — losing access to that Nvidia chip would make it three to six times more expensive for Chinese companies to run inference on advanced AI models. 'Beijing appears to be using regulatory uncertainty to create a captive market sufficiently sized to absorb Huawei's supply, while still allowing purchases of H20s to meet actual demands,' said Lennart Heim, an AI-focused researcher at RAND, of China's push for companies to avoid American AI chips. 'This signals that domestic alternatives remain inadequate even as China pressures foreign suppliers.' President Donald Trump on Monday called the H20 chip 'obsolete,' saying that China 'already has it in a different form.' That echoed previous statements by officials in his administration, who defended the decision to resume H20 exports on the grounds that Huawei already offers comparable chips to the H20. The US should keep the Chinese AI ecosystem reliant on less-advanced American technology for as long as possible, these officials argue, in order to deprive Huawei of the revenue and know-how that would come from a broader customer base. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and other Trump officials have also claimed that the H20 move was part of a deal to improve American access to Chinese rare-earth minerals — despite the Trump team's previous assertions that such an arrangement was not on the table. 'As the Chinese deliver their magnets, then the H20s will come off,' Lutnick said last month. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in late July that the magnet issue had been 'solved.' The first Nvidia H20 and AMD MI308 licenses arrived a bit over a week after Bessent's declaration — after Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang met with the president and both companies agreed to share their China revenue with the US government. --With assistance from Yanping Li. Why It's Actually a Good Time to Buy a House, According to a Zillow Economist Bessent on Tariffs, Deficits and Embracing Trump's Economic Plan The Social Media Trend Machine Is Spitting Out Weirder and Weirder Results Klarna Cashed In on 'Buy Now, Pay Later.' Now It Wants to Be a Bank The Game Starts at 8. The Robbery Starts at 8:01 ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Effettua l'accesso per consultare il tuo portafoglio
Bloomberg
04-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Algeria Plans to Allow Foreign Firms to Mine for Critical Metals
Algeria is poised to allow wider foreign ownership of mines as the gas-rich nation looks to boost production of minerals including phosphate, iron ore and lithium to diversify its economy. New legislation permitting foreign companies to hold as much as 80% of mining projects is set for a vote in parliament, potentially marking a major shift for the nation where state enterprises wield majority control.
