US chipmaker Nvidia said it is “disappointed” about current restrictions locking it out of China’s artificial intelligence market, but the company reported record revenues for the third quarter despite shrinking sales in the world’s second-largest economy.
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Nvidia reported a 62 per cent surge in total revenue to a record US$57 billion, even as its sales in China, including Hong Kong, plunged 63 per cent to US$3 billion in the three months ended October 26, according to the company’s financial report on Wednesday.
Sales of the H20, the AI graphics processing unit Nvidia released last year specifically for China, only generated around US$50 million in the quarter under licences granted by the US government in August to sell the product to certain Chinese customers.
“Sizeable purchase orders never materialised in the quarter due to geopolitical issues and the increasingly competitive market in China,” the firm’s financial chief Colette Kress said in an earnings call with analysts.
While it was “disappointed in the current state” of regulations banning the company from selling more competitive products to China, Nvidia was still “committed to continued engagement” with both the US and Chinese governments, Kress said.
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Nvidia sold no H20 chips to China-based customers in the second quarter, after the product generated US$4.6 billion in sales in the first quarter.