AI generated photo for representation purpose. Nvidia GPU and Groq LPU on a futuristic workbench, bathed in dramatic light, highlighting their intricate details and power.
Nvidia is said to be developing a version of its recently licensed Groq AI chips specifically for the Chinese market, a report has said. Citing people familiar with the matter, news agency Reuters reported that unlike previous H20 and H200, these will not be watered-down versions of processors that will be sold in other parts of the world.
Late last year, Nvidia struck a $17 billion deal to license technology from Groq, an AI chip startup, and unveiled a new lineup of products based on that technology at its annual developer conference in San Jose this week.
Nvidia H200 and the Groq-based chips are different
While both Nvidia H200 and the Groq-based chips are designed for fundamentally different tasks within the AI pipeline, the former is built primarily for AI training, which is a computationally intensive process of building and refining AI models from scratch.
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Nvidia H20 Chips for China: What’s Really Going On?
The Groq chips, by contrast, are optimised for AI inference – the stage where a trained AI model is actually put to work, answering questions, writing code, analysing data, and carrying out tasks for users in real time. Inference is different from training, and it is a market where Nvidia faces significantly more competition.In its new product lineup shown this week, Nvidia plans to combine its forthcoming Vera Rubin chips with the Groq inference chips.
The report noted that the China-ready Groq chips are not downgraded or specially hobbled versions built to meet export control thresholds, and are the same chips but adapted to work with other systems that Chinese customers may already have in place. The Groq chip for China is expected to be available in May.
Why this matters
By bringing a competitive inference chip to the Chinese market at the same time as resuming H200 sales, Nvidia is essentially launching a two-pronged offensive to recover lost ground.
After months of regulatory restrictions, Nvidia has received approval from both the US and Chinese governments to resume sales of its H200 chips to Chinese customers.CEO Jensen Huang confirmed at a press conference this week that Nvidia has been licensed to sell the H200 to “many customers in China” and has already received purchase orders from “many” companies. “Our supply chain is getting fired up,” Huang said.
