Nvidia placed orders for 300,000 H20 chipsets with contract manufacturer TSMC last week, two sources said, with one of them adding that strong Chinese demand had led the U.S. firm to change its mind about just relying on its existing stockpile. The Trump administration this month allowed Nvidia to resume sales of H20 graphics processing units (GPUs) to China, reversing an effective ban imposed in April designed to keep advanced AI chips out of Chinese hands due to national security concerns. Nvidia developed the H20 specifically for the Chinese market after U.S. export restrictions on its other AI chipsets were imposed in late 2023. The H20 does not have as much computing power as Nvidia’s H100 or its new Blackwell series sold in markets outside China. The new orders with Taiwan’s TMSC would add to existing inventory of 600,000 to 700,000 H20 chips, according to the sources who were not authorised to speak to media and declined to be identified. For comparison purposes, Nvidia sold around 1 million H20 chips in 2024, according to U.S. research firm SemiAnalysis. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said during a trip to Beijing this month that the level of H20 orders it received would determine whether production would begin again, adding that any restart to the supply chain would take nine months. The Information reported after Huang’s trip that Nvidia had told customers it had limited H20 stocks available and it had no immediate plans to restart wafer production for the GPU. Nvidia needs to obtain export licenses from the U.S. government to ship the H20 chips. It said in mid-July it had been assured by authorities that it would get them soon. The U.S. Department of Commerce has yet to approve those licenses, one of the sources and a third source said.

Full exclusive : Nvidia ordered 300,000 H20 chips from TSMC last week, adding to its 600,000 to 700,000 inventory, amid strong China demand after the US cleared H20 chip sales.