Nvidia Stock Drops. AI Chip Exports to China Are Under Threat: Report

Nvidia could face further restrictions on exports of its artificial intelligence chips to China. 

The U.S. intends to tighten restrictions on AI chip exports to China and Nvidia’s H800 chip is a model that the Biden administration would like to block, Reuters reported Sunday, citing a U.S. government official and industry sources.

Nvidia
(ticker: NVDA) declined to comment on the report. The Commerce Department, which oversees export controls, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.

In early trading, the stock was up 0.8%, to $458.34; share had been down in premarket trading. The stock has more than tripled in value this year on its AI chips, but is down 1.5% over the last three months. 

One concern that has been holding the stock back is that tensions between the U.S. and China could limit Nvidia’s exports, despite the company designing less-powerful chips for the Chinese market as a work around.  

Nvidia has previously said that it wouldn’t see any near-term impact to its earnings from the expansion of export restrictions to cover the H800 and A800, two chips specifically designed for the Chinese market. However, Nvidia executives have said blanket bans on exports to China would affect the long-term growth of the U.S. chip industry.

Chinese companies Alibaba (BABA), Tencent, Baidu (BIDU), and TikTok-owner ByteDance collectively ordered around $5 billion worth of Nvidia’s A800 chips for delivery this year and next, according to a Financial Times report in August, citing people familiar with the matter. 

Write to Adam Clark at [email protected]

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