US officials last week told Nvidia it must obtain licences to export its H20 chips to China because of concerns they may be used in supercomputers there, the Silicon Valley company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.
Shares of Nvidia, which have seen high volatility since US President Donald Trump made a major tariffs announcement on April 2, were down more than six percent in after-market trades.
The new licensing rule applies to Nvidia GPUs (graphics processing units) with bandwidth similar to that of the H20.
The United States had already restricted exports to China of Nvidia’s most sophisticated GPUs, tailored for powering top-end artificial intelligence models.
Nvidia was told the licensing requirement on H20 chips would last indefinitely, it said in the filing.
Nvidia’s current fiscal quarter ends on April 27.
“First quarter results are expected to include up to approximately US$5.5 billion of charges associated with H20 products for inventory, purchase commitments, and related reserves,” Nvidia said in the filing.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has said publicly that the AI chip powerhouse will balance legal compliance and technological advances under Trump, and that nothing will stop the global advancement of artificial intelligence.
“We’ll continue to do that and we’ll be able to do that just fine,” the entrepreneur told reporters last year.
Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden restricted Nvidia from selling some of its top AI chips to China, which the United States sees as a competitor in technology.
Global markets have been on a roller coaster since Trump’s April 2 announcement, declining sharply before partially recovering with his 90-day pause on the steepest tariff rates last week. (AFP)
