Nvidia readies downgraded chips for China, but will anyone want to buy them? Nvidia is caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to China, banned from shipping its most capable products but discovering that the Chinese may not want to buy those it is allowed to sell. The GPU giant is said to be preparing new products that will comply with the latest tough restrictions imposed on high-tech …
I suspect they'll probably ship standard hardware and attempt to cripple it via firmware as they've done before (remember the crypto hashing restrictions?), in which case once received someone in China will magically create a firmware hack to open them up entirely. Hooray, export restrictions.
With the resale and auction-style pricing for H100-style cards with scarcity, I wouldn't be surprised if China doesn't just buy what they can on the secondary market like everyone else at that point. Resellers I'm sure won't really care who's buying at ludicrous MSRP+small-fortune profits.
We all know that should people in China find a way of using the crippled parts effectively then the US will simply move the goalposts once again. The message is clear -- "Don't buy anything American". This doesn't just apply to advanced semiconductors, either. We've been living under this regime for years but its effects haven't been that noticeable to the wider public since its really only impacted standards. The result has been a gradual shift away from US technology which, in turn, takes away the incentive to develop new technology in the US. We're effectively strangling ourselves, turning ourselves from a technological powerhouse into a bit of a backwater.
People who say this can't happen haven't grown up in the UK and watched its de-industrialization.
The Chinese won't care if their home-grown GPUs are half the speed of the US-designed ones. They'll just build twice as many. It'll probably cost the same in total.
But if China decides to retaliate by (or example) stopping the export of cheap solar panels and batteries, the West is going to have a much harder time filling the gap. Not only would there be massive investment required, but there are tighter environmental and labour laws.
To paraphrase the Princess "The more you tighten your grip, Biden, the more high tech will slip through your fingers"
The US are trying to be protectionist and are strangling sales for their allies as well as themselves.
Let China buy any kit it wants and it will be slower to develop stuff in house as it's cheaper and better to buy in.
It's the China model in reverse.
The restrictions are just encouraging them to find better and cheaper solutions.
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Yeah... Sure.
Put your sheep to graze in the desert and they will eat sand.
Take my car and give me a bike so that I grow some leg power.
Why is it that when sanctions strike a country, its citizens (or supporters) claim that this is actually a blessing in disguise? But only after the fact.
If it, really were a blessing, shouldn't they beg to be sanctioned in advance?
Has anybody ever come across this "Come on, uncle Sam, we don't want your filthy n6000! We want to grow our own industry. Please sanction us!"?
As for me, I haven't. Oddly enough.
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