The cost of frontier AI development is escalating to unprecedented levels, prompting leading innovators like OpenAI to actively seek government intervention. CNBC’s MacKenzie Sigalos, reporting live on ‘Closing Bell Overtime,’ detailed a significant development: OpenAI is reportedly urging the U.S. administration to expand the CHIPS and Science Act’s tax credits to encompass AI data centers […]
U.S. government has officially blocked Nvidia from selling its advanced Blackwell and B30A AI chips to China.
China has responded with a new rule banning foreign AI chips from all state-funded data centers.
Global AI chip war deepens as both nations tighten technology controls
White House Blocks Nvidia’s Advanced Blackwell Chip Sales to China
The Trump administration has decided not to allow Nvidia to sell its latest Blackwell AI chip to China. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt confirmed the decision, stating, “The Blackwell chip is not something we’re interested in selling to China right now.”
This decision follows months of speculation about whether a scaled-down version of the chip might be cleared for sale. The move aligns with President Trump’s strategy to maintain America’s technological edge in artificial intelligence and prevent China from acquiring high-end U.S. hardware.
US Treasury Secretary Calls Blackwell the “Crown Jewel”
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described Nvidia’s Blackwell chip as the “crown jewel” of American AI innovation. He indicated that sales to China might be reconsidered only after the chip becomes outdated in 12 to 24 months. According to Bessent, Nvidia’s rapid pace of innovation means that the Blackwell could soon be several generations behind the company’s latest models.
Nvidia’s Market Collapse in China
Nvidia’s position in China has deteriorated sharply. Once controlling 95% of the Chinese AI data center market in 2022, the company now holds no market share. CEO Jensen Huang has expressed hope that Nvidia will eventually return to the Chinese market, but admitted there are no current plans to do so. Nvidia is reportedly redesigning its B30A chip in hopes of meeting future U.S. export conditions.
China Retaliates with Ban on Foreign AI Chips
In a direct response, Beijing has ordered that all new data centre projects receiving state funding must use only domestically produced AI chips. Projects that are less than 30% complete are required to remove or cancel any foreign chip orders, while those further along will be reviewed individually.
This directive represents one of China’s most aggressive steps toward achieving AI chip self-sufficiency. It is expected to benefit domestic manufacturers such as Huawei, Cambricon, and MetaX. However, industry analysts warn that Chinese AI chips still lag behind Nvidia’s products in performance and software ecosystem support, potentially slowing China’s AI development.
The Global AI Divide Widens
The escalating U.S.–China chip restrictions are reshaping the global AI landscape. The United States aims to secure national security and preserve its technological dominance, while China seeks independence from U.S. technology and to strengthen its domestic semiconductor ecosystem.
While American tech giants like Microsoft, Meta, and OpenAI continue to build massive AI data centres using Nvidia’s most advanced chips, China risks falling behind in computing capacity despite gains in local chip production.
Both the U.S. and China are pursuing self-reliance in AI technology, setting the stage for a deeper divide in global innovation. The U.S. is safeguarding its AI lead, while China is accelerating its domestic semiconductor push.
Nvidia and other American chipmakers are losing access to one of the world’s largest markets, while Chinese chip firms stand to benefit, though at the cost of slower advancement in high-end AI capabilities.
AMD's CEO, Lisa Su, revealed in the company's recent Q3 earnings call that the firm has multiple customers hoping to strike a deal of a similar magnitude to the OpenAI partnership. AMD Could See Partnerships With Companies Other than OpenAI, Involving Upcoming Instinct AI Chips It appears that Team Red is garnering significant attention from the mainstream AI industry, particularly following the firm's recent collaboration with OpenAI, a deal that is expected to generate $100 billion in revenue. It appears that AMD is in talks with multiple customers to establish an agreement on a similar framework, according to what CEO […]
Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon recently staked a bold claim in the burgeoning AI landscape, asserting that the company’s addressable market for AI data centers is, unequivocally, “all of it.” This declaration, made during an interview with CNBC’s Jon Fortt following Qualcomm’s earnings call, signals an aggressive pivot and expansion beyond its traditional mobile dominance, directly […]
EdgeCortix has secured over $110 million in total funding, including an oversubscribed Series B, to accelerate its energy-efficient AI chip platforms for the growing edge AI market.
Samsung is one of the few companies in the world that are largely self-reliant. The company makes a lot of components in-house. We’re talking about memory chips and semiconductors. They even have factories to help others make semiconductors. Now, Samsung is taking things to the next level by building an AI megafactory with the help of NVIDIA.
Meet Samsung’s AI megafactory
The facility will deploy more than 50,000 NVIDIA GPUs across Samsung’s manufacturing operations. It will also embed AI into every step of the process. This includes semiconductor design, processing, equipment operation, and quality control. The goal here is to make chip production faster, smarter, and more efficient through real-time analysis and optimization.
The Samsung AI megafactory will use NVIDIA’s Omniverse platform to create digital twins of its facilities. For those unfamiliar with the concept of digital twins, these are essentially virtual replicas of physical fabs. By creating a virtual replica, Samsung can simulate and test changes before implementing them in real life. This helps with predictive maintenance, spotting problems early, and planning operations more effectively.
Samsung is also working with NVIDIA on GPU-accelerated chip design tools alongside partners like Synopsys and Cadence. These tools speed up the design process significantly, with computational lithography performance getting a 20x boost using NVIDIA’s cuLitho library. Shorter development cycles mean better chips reaching the market faster.
Going beyond chips
The partnership extends beyond semiconductor manufacturing. Samsung will use NVIDIA’s RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server GPUs to power intelligent robotics in mobile device production. This will help to enable real-time AI reasoning and automate task execution.
Both companies are also advancing AI-RAN technology, which integrates AI into mobile networks. This is crucial for the next generation of AI-powered robots, drones, and industrial machinery that need real-time processing at the network edge.
While Samsung doesn’t have the same reputation when it comes to semiconductors compared to TSMC, leveraging the use of AI to make its manufacturing process smarter and more efficient could help. The company has typically struggled with its yields. This has resulted in companies like Qualcomm turning to TSMC for its chip production. Perhaps with the use of AI, Samsung might finally be able to turn things around.
Login
