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Semiconductors
TechTech War

New Nvidia Blackwell GPUs put China further behind global leading edge in AI chips amid US sanctions

  • Nvidia plans to upgrade its AI accelerators every year, using world-leading chip manufacturing technology from TSMC
  • China’s AI progress is hindered by limited GPU choices, lack of access to advanced chip manufacturing, and an underdeveloped software ecosystem

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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks at an event in Taipei on Sunday ahead of Computex forum. Photo: Reuters
Che Panin Beijing

The gap between China and the US in leading artificial intelligence (AI) chip technology is set to widen further, after Nvidia founder and chief executive Jensen Huang unveiled next-generation processors for what he called a new era of generative AI and robotics used in industries.

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In a keynote speech on Sunday ahead of the Computex trade show in Taiwan that runs from June 4 to 7, the 61-year-old billionaire said computers are “no longer just an instrument for information storage or data processing, but a factory for generating intelligence for every industry.”

Nvidia plans to upgrade its AI accelerators – processors designed to efficiently process AI tasks – every year, and the next-generation Blackwell Ultra is expected to be released next year, succeeding the Blackwell platform chips unveiled in March.

Blackwell platform chips are expected to enter the market in the third quarter and take up just under 10 per cent of the high-end graphics processing unit (GPU) market, according to a note by Taipei-based research firm TrendForce.

“Nvidia is proactively pushing its AI technologies to meet global demand,” said Arisa Liu, a semiconductor research director at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research, adding that Nvidia’s new chip architecture, Rubin, will adopt Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC)’s 4-nanometre process.
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Many of the semiconductors and servers that enable AI breakthroughs are assembled or made by TSMC.

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