Alibaba Group Holding, ByteDance and other Chinese tech firms remained keen on Nvidia’s artificial intelligence chips despite regulators in Beijing strongly discouraging them from such purchases, four people with knowledge of procurement discussions said.
They wanted reassurance that their orders of Nvidia’s H20 model, which the US firm in July regained permission to sell in China, were being processed, and were closely monitoring Nvidia’s plans for a more powerful chip, tentatively named the B30A and which is based on its Blackwell architecture, two of the people said.
The B30A – if approved for sale by Washington – was likely to cost about double the H20, which currently sells for between US$10,000 and US$12,000, those two people said.
Chinese tech firms perceived the potential B30A pricing as a good deal, they added. One said the B30A promised to be up to six times more powerful than the H20.
Both chips are downgraded versions of models sold outside China, developed specifically to comply with US export restrictions.
All sources for this article were not authorised to speak to the media and declined to be identified.
