In August, the Biden administration prohibited Nvidia and AMD from exporting sophisticated chips to China in a fresh move to intensify the containment of China's high-tech sector.
On November 8, 2022, stores on the online marketplace Taobao (Alibaba Group) started selling the Nvidia A800 graphics processing unit (GPU). According to the product description, the chip-to-chip data transfer rate is 400 gigabytes (GB) a second, compared with 600GB a second on the advanced A100. Apart from this, there are no significant differences between the two GPUs. The Nvidia A800 GPU, which went into production in the third quarter, is another alternative product to the Nvidia A100 GPU for customers in China. The A800 meets the US government's clear test for reduced export controls.
According to Semiconductor Industry Association SEMI data, semiconductor equipment sales in the Chinese mainland reached USD 29.62 billion in 2021, up 58% year-on-year, accounting for 29% of the global semiconductor equipment market. The GPU is one of the most important computing components and has been widely used in applications including graphics and video rendering, artificial intelligence and creative production.
In August, the Biden Administration prohibited Nvidia and AMD from exporting sophisticated chips to China in a fresh move to intensify the containment of China's high-tech sector. Before the policy, Nvidia accounted for about 95% of China's AI and supercomputing chip market share. Nvidia said in a previous statement that the Biden administration's export ban would make the company lose approximately USD 400 million in potential sales to China in the third quarter. The company will report quarterly results on November 16, 2022.