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China bans its biggest tech companies from acquiring Nvidia chips, says report — Beijing claims its homegrown AI processors now match H20 and RTX Pro 6000D (www.tomshardware.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/36053411

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[–] 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

The problem is the Chinese chips are not cheaper. Huawei's 910c is about 30% slower and 1/3 more expensive. Add on top of that a lack of software, without government force, who would buy it?

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Huawei’s 910c is about 30% slower and 1/3 more expensive.

    NVIDIA H100s are currently going for around $25k to Huawei's $28k. And that's before you get to the secondary market, where NVIDIA chipsets will inevitably jump in price based on availability and relative demand. Without Huawei in the market, I guarantee NVIDIA's chips would be even more expensive.

    At some point, its just a matter of what is available. American tech companies are demanding more chipsets than NVIDIA can currently produce, which is why the company's still considered a growth investment play. Chinese competitors aren't going to be able to import NVIDIA to meet their own internal demand. They'll buy Huawei units because that's what is on the shelf.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 child)

    I don't think you realize it, but your proving my point. I never said no Huawei chips would be sold. I said China wants to reach criticality with it's users. With Huawei chips being more expensive and less capable, the big boys won't buy Huawei. And the secondary market doesn't matter to the big boys who will get it at MSRP because orders always go to them first. Since they have the most users and will have the most exposure for stress testing.

    The last thing China wants is for Huawei to only sell to smaller companies and start ups where it's entirely possible there will be no users and money wasted. That's why the new law only targets the major companies.

    *Edit on that point I'm going to predict the future now. In a few months we're going to see an article saying China has bought record amounts of H20s and NVIDIA's stocks are going to go up again. This is because the smaller companies are still going to be buying and at MSRP because the big boys can't.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    a few months we’re going to see an article saying China has bought record amounts of H20s and NVIDIA’s stocks are going to go up again. This is because the smaller companies are still going to be buying and at MSRP because the big boys can’t.

    I would not bank on it, but I guess we'll see.

    At the moment, NVIDIA and CoreWeave are busy swapping spit while Trump is throatling the export economy at record speed.

    But hey, time will tell.

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