Nvidia Corp. HGX H100 supercomputing graphics processing unit (GPU) with artificial intelligence in the showroom of the company’s offices in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, June 2, 2023.
I-Hwa Cheng | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday night that the US is considering recent restrictions on AI chip exports to China that might affect Nvidia, the market leader in GPUs needed to construct AI software resembling ChatGPT.
Nvidia CFO Colette Kress downplayed the effects of potential export restrictions at a financial conference on Wednesday, saying there could be no “immediate financial impact” but further restrictions could hurt the company’s future growth.
Nvidia’s shares began to rise after Kress’ comments before finally falling by around 1.8% on Wednesday. The corporate’s shares are up greater than 179% to this point in 2023.
“We’re aware of reports that the U.S. Department of Commerce is considering further controls that will limit the export of the A800 and our H800 products to China,” Kress said, referring to the company’s chips. “Nonetheless, given the strength of our demand for our products globally, we don’t anticipate that such additional restrictions, if adopted, may have a right away material impact on our financial results.”
Kress said China accounts for between 20% and 25% of the company’s data center revenue, which totaled $4.28 billion in first-quarter sales. This includes other chips, not only those used for AI, including networking parts.
Kress said this might affect Nvidia’s growth prospects.
“In the long run, restrictions prohibiting the sale of our data center products to China, if implemented, will lead to a everlasting loss of the ability to compete and lead US industry in a single of the world’s largest markets. And the impact on our future business and financial performance is there,” Kress continued.
Nvidia is a pacesetter in the parts needed to construct advanced AI systems, and AI engineers covet the company’s A100 chips and recent H100 chips. Washington is working to limit Chinese access to the company’s technology to prevent people and businesses in the region from catching up with the US
Nvidia previously introduced the A800 and H800 chips with modified and slowed down hardware to comply with US export controls. Nonetheless, according to the journal, recent Commerce Department limits could restrict the export of even these chips.