Chinese companies will lose access to the country's largest NVIDIA processor distribution channel after the US adds major resellers to its export blacklist, curbing artificial intelligence (AI) development in China while increasing It intensifies Washington's efforts to seek local alternatives from Chinese companies.
According to a Reuters report, Kevin Kurland, a U.S. Department of Commerce export enforcement official, said the companies were “involved in providing AI chips to China's military modernization program,” a military intelligence user. Yes, he said at a Senate subcommittee hearing.
China's Ministry of Commerce said in a statement that the U.S. sanctions were an “abuse” and “weaponization” of export controls.
Sitonholy is one of the few “elite-level” Nvidia data center product solution providers in China that holds the franchise, citing strong annual sales, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. They are not authorized to speak to the media.
Nvidia has been banned by the US from exporting its cutting-edge A100 and H100 data center graphics processing units (GPUs), popular for AI training, to China, but is offering new replacements for China-based customers. devised. H20, L20, L2 GPU, etc.
However, after being placed on the U.S. blacklist, Sitonholy effectively ended its role as a distributor of NVIDIA products and was forced to sell mainly domestically produced chips from now on, the people said.
Sitonholy has distributed other Huawei data center solutions such as Huawei Technologies' Ascend 910B AI chip (a replacement for Nvidia's A100 GPU) and the Atlas 800I A2 inference server.
Various tests have shown that the Huawei 910B is capable of about 70% of Nvidia's A100-level performance.
It is unclear at this time whether Nvidia will complete orders through Sitonholy before being blacklisted. The South China Morning Post could not reach Siton-Holey for comment on Saturday.
China is accelerating its efforts to replace foreign chips and software with domestically produced products to protect national and industrial security.
Huawei has emerged as a strong supplier essential to building an ecosystem based on homegrown hardware and software solutions such as HarmonyOS.
The Shenzhen-based giant last year defied U.S. sanctions and installed a 7-nanometer-grade mobile system-on-chip made by Chinese foundry Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC). Launched a 5G smartphone.
Huawei and SMIC are among more than 600 Chinese companies added to Washington's export control list, which prevents U.S. suppliers from shipping goods and technology to these Chinese companies without special permission. ing.
