US is blocking China from getting RTX 4090 GPUs

With the ongoing tensions between the two countries, the US government has blocked shipments of GPUs to China.

America’s Department of Commerce has thrown another spanner into the works for Nvidia. CEO Jensen Huang warned the US government earlier this year that the blocking of certain components to China would result in a chip war.

Now, the US is blocking both the Nvidia H100 – the main chip used in most AI applications – and the RTX 4090, along with the A100, A800, H800, L40, and L40s. The RTX 4090 is the only gaming GPU included in the list due to its immense power for more than just gaming.

In the latest move of the chip war, the US remains nervous surrounding any AI breakthroughs that China might have. However, in recent months since Huang’s warning, China has made multiple strides in producing its own components.

As reported by CNBC, the US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said that this isn’t a choice designed to impact China’s economic growth.

The restrictions put in place are done so by the power that the GPU chips provide when applied. This means that entire systems like the DGX will be unable to make it over to China.

US doesn’t intend to harm China economic growth with AI chip ban

Nvidia

Outside of this, the US says it has no intentions to block the shipment of chips intended for consumer products, despite blocking the RTX 4090.

A concern raised by VideoCardz is that the blocking of a consumer GPU like the RTX 4090, could hurt some companies. As some GPU manufacturers are based in China, it could potentially hurt availability in the West, as boxes and final touches are done in China itself. It’s yet to be seen if Intel or AMD will be affected by the restrictions.

Nvidia has only 29 days before it has to abide by the new restrictions.

China’s AI output so far has been relatively tame, with companies like Baidu trying to outmatch OpenAI’s ChatGPT. As mentioned above, Huang’s warning of Chinese companies simply doing the legwork themselves rather than waiting for one of the big three is now a very real reality.