Jensen Huang Floats Potential Blackwell AI Chips Sold in China as Tepid Nvid...

　　TMTPOST -- Nvidia Corporation management expressed upbeat on performance in the Chinese market despite tepid guidance they offered that didn’t factor sales of H20, a China-tailored artificial intelligence chip to comply with the Biden-era export controls.

　　Credit：Nvidia

　　China is estimated to bring about $50 billion of opportunity for Nvidia this year, Huang told analysts on an earnings call on Wednesday. “If we were able to address it with competitive products and if it’s [opportunity worth of] $50 billion this year, you would expect it to grow, say, 50% per year as as the rest of the world’s AI AI market is growing as well,” Huang said when asked about the long-term prospects of the China opportunity.

　　Huang stressed the significance of China. It is the second largest computing market in the world as well as the home of AI researchers since about half of the world’s researchers are from there, and in addition, the vast majority of the leading open-source models are created there, Huang said. Therefore, he believes it’s very important for American tech companies to be able to address the market.

　　As part of efforts to address the Chinese market, Huang floated the possibility of approval from the U.S. government to sell Nvidia’s latest Blackwell-architecture chips. “The the opportunity for us to bring Blackwell to the China market is a real possibility,” Huang said. “And so we just have to keep advocating the the sensibility of and the importance of American tech companies to be able to lead and win the AI race and help make the American tech stack the global standard.”

　　Huang made the remarks right after Nvidia posted mixed financial results for its second fiscal quarter ended July 27. It recorded revenue of $46.74 billion, beating Wall Street estimated $46.23 billion. That represented the slowest growth rate in more than two years with a year-over-year increase of 56% in sales, slowing down from a 69% surge three months earlier.On non-GAAP basis, adjusted earnings per share shot up 54% YoY to $1.05 after a 33% YoY increase for the preceding quarter. The EPS was stronger than analysts projected $1.00.

　　The revenue growth was in part driven by Blackwell chips. Nvidia Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress said sales of Blackwell offerings rose 17% quarter-over-quarter . The EPS surge benefited from a $180 million release of previously reserved H20 inventory, from approximately $650 million in unrestricted H20 sales to a customer outside of China.

　　But Nvidia’s top business Data Center missed estimates for the second consecutive quarter. The segment brought RMB41.1 billion with a 56% YoY increase, still blew analysts expected $41.29 billion. The sales was dragged by the new U.S. export restriction on H20 chips to China. Nvidia said there were no H20 sales to China-based customers in the second quarter. Data Center compute revenue dropped 1% QoQ, driven by a $4.0 billion reduction in H20 sales, according to Kress.

　　Looking forward the third fiscal quarter, Nvidia expected revenue to be $5.4 billion, plus or minus 2%. That was above the consensus estimates of $53.46 billion, but some analysts had their optimistic projection of more than $60 billion, which was way above Nvidia’s guidance.

　　Nvidia said it has not assumed any H20 shipments to China in the guidance for its third quarter ended in September. Such forecast signaled the growth is decelerating when it is still uncertain when and how H20 sales in China would resume normal. Kress showed cautiously optimistc on H20, stating that Nvidia is expected to deliver $2.0 billion to $5.0 billion of revenue from H20 for the third quarter if “geopolitical issues reside.”

　　Kress told analysts the Trump administration began reviewing export licenses for H20 sales in China in late July. While a select number of Nvidia’s China based customers have received licenses over the past few weeks, the company have not shipped any H20 based on those licenses.

　　U.S. President Donald Trump on August 11 confirmed reports that Nvidia will be allowed to sell H20 chips to China, in exchange for giving the U.S. government 15% of the revenue they get from the sales. U.S. officials have expressed an expectation that the government will receive 15% of the revenue generated from licensed H20 sales. though the governemnt to date has not published a regulation codifying such requirement, Kresss on Wednesday noted.