Nvidia Confirms New US Controls Will Affect Some of Its Chips, Products
The U.S. updated chip export controls announced this week will affect a number of chips marketed by Nvidia, the American semiconductor firm confirmed this week. Nvidia said it will face new license requirements for any of its integrated circuits exceeding certain performance thresholds -- including its A100, A800, H100, H800, L40, L40S and RTX 4090 -- along with any existing system that incorporates one or more of those integrated circuits, including potentially future products developed by the company.
The license requirements, included in Export Control Classification Numbers 3A090 or 4A090, “may impact the Company's ability to complete development of products in a timely manner, support existing customers of covered products, or supply customers of covered products outside the impacted regions,” Nvidia said in an SEC filing after the new rules were released. The requirements also may require the company to “transition certain operations out of one or more of the identified countries.” The company will need to obtain a license for certain exports to customers headquartered in, or that has a parent headquartered in, China and certain other countries.
Nvidia said it “may seek a license” for exports of those items, but it has “no assurance” the U.S. government “will grant any exceptions or licenses, or that the USG will act on the request in a timely manner.” Nvidia added that its third quarter of FY 2024 ends Oct. 29, and “given the strength of demand for our products worldwide, we do not anticipate that the additional restrictions will have a near-term meaningful impact on our financial results.”
The company’s comments came one day after a senior administration official said the new rules would cover some of Nvidia’s chips that the company had developed to comply with BIS’ initial Oct. 7, 2022, controls (see 2310170055). Nvidia in June warned that U.S. export controls on a broader set of artificial intelligence-related chips could have massive impacts on the chip industry and deal permanent damage to the company’s chip sales in China (see 2306290048).