Exclusive-Nvidia orders 300,000 H20 chips from TSMC due to robust China demand, sources say
Liam MO, Brenda Goh and Karen Freifeld
Beijing/Shanghai/New York (Reuters) -nvidia ordered last week with the contract manufacturer TSMC for 300,000 H20 chipset, the two sources, one of them, has caused the power of the strong Chinese company to rely on the current stocks of the US company.
This month, the Trump administration allowed NVIDIA to continue sales of H20 graphic processing units (GPU) to China, and in April reversed an effective ban designed to keep advanced AI chips away from China due to national security concerns.
NVIDIA developed the H20, especially for the Chinese market after its implementation of export restrictions on other AI sets of the US at the end of 2023. The H20 does not have as much information processing power as the Nvidia’s H100 or the new Blackwell series sold in markets other than China.
According to sources that are not authorized to talk to the media and refuse to be defined, new orders with Taiwan’s SDR will contribute to the current inventory with 600,000 to 700,000 H20 chip.
For the purpose of comparison, NVIDIA sold approximately 1 million H20 chipset in 2024, according to US research company Semanaliz.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said that during a trip to Beijing this month, it would determine whether the production level will start again and added that any restarting will take nine months to the supply chain.
After Huang’s trip, NVIDIA told customers that they had limited H20 stocks and did not have plans to restart the production of wafer for the GPU.
NVIDIA needs to obtain export licenses from the US government to send H20 chips. He said he was sure he would get them soon by the authorities in mid -July.
The US Department of Commerce has not yet approved these licenses, one of the sources and a third source.
On Monday, Nvidia refused to comment on the situation of new orders or license applications. TSMC refrained from commenting. The US Trade Department did not respond immediately to the request for comment.
NVIDIA asked Chinese companies who want to buy NVIDIA H20 CHIPs, one of the sources and one of the fourth source and a fourth source, to send customers to send new documents, including order volume forecasts.
Key Product in the US-Sino Trade War
The Trump administration said that the start of H20 sales is a part of negotiations on China and rare earth magnets – the necessary elements for many industries and Beijing, the trade war tensions increased limited exports.
The decision made China’s bilateral condemnation from US lawmakers by accessing H20.
