Nvidia launched game chips to the Chinese market, saying it met export control requirements
Nvidia officially unveiled a modified version of an advanced gaming chip on Thursday local time to comply with U.S. export controls against China.
Nvidia said the gaming chip, called GeForce RTX 4090D, represents a "qualitative leap" in performance, efficiency and AI-powered graphics and will be available to customers in China starting in January.
"The GeForce RTX 4090 D is designed to fully comply with U.S. government export control requirements. In developing this product, we had extensive contact with the U.S. government. Nvidia responded to the first financial reporter.
The RTX 4090 D for the Chinese market is priced at 12,999 yuan (about $1,842), which is comparable to the price of the RTX 4090 sold in the United States.
However, Nvidia's China product page shows that the RTX 4090D has 11% fewer CUDA cores than the RTX 4090. An Nvidia spokesperson said that the RTX 4090 D, which was launched for the Chinese market, slowed down 5% in terms of gaming and creation compared to the banned RTX 4090.
The GeForce RTX 4090 D is also the first chip focused on the Chinese market officially launched by NVIDIA since the Biden administration announced the updated chip export rules in October this year. According to the latest chip restriction order, Nvidia's two AI chips A800 and H800 previously customized for the Chinese market have been banned from sale, and at the same time, another top gaming chip, RTX 4090, is also on the ban list.
Nvidia has said it is developing custom chips for the Chinese market. The latest release of the RTX 4090D replaces the RTX 4090, which has been banned from being sold to China.
According to the documents submitted by Nvidia to the SEC on October 18, the details of the products involved in the new US chip sales restriction regulations include but are not limited to A100, A800, H100, H800, L40, L40S and RTX 4090 products.
Nvidia accounts for more than 90 percent of China's $7 billion AI chip market, and analysts say U.S. restrictions could create opportunities for Chinese local chip companies to enter the market.
Nvidia is the technology company that has been boosted the most by artificial intelligence models this year. As of the last trading day of 2023, the company's stock price has risen by as much as 240% this year, and its market capitalization has stabilized at $1.23 trillion.
According to Nvidia's third-quarter financial report released last month, total revenue reached $18.1 billion, a year-on-year increase of more than 205%, and net profit reached $9.24 billion, a year-on-year increase of about 13 times.