American chip company NVIDIA is planning to launch new artificial intelligence (AI) chips aimed at the Chinese market, reported Reuters.

According to SemiAnalysis, a semiconductor industry newsletter, the new chips are called HGX H20, L20 PCIe and L2 PCIe.

NVIDIA could announce the chips as early as 16 November 2023, the publication said, citing the newsletter.

The news comes shortly after the US government tightened the rules to restrict China and other countries from accessing AI chips from companies such as NVIDIA.

According to the newsletter, the analysis of the specifications of the chips revealed that while they retain most of NVIDIA’s latest features for AI tasks, certain of their computational capabilities have been reduced to comply with new US regulations.

The new regulations place a limit on the amount of processing power that a chip may fit into a tiny package.

A “grey zone” is also included in the rules, which allows chips to be shipped to China but with a licence.

NVIDIA declined to comment on the development.

Requests for comment from the US Commerce Department or the White House did not elicit a response.

Following the new restrictions, the US AI chip giant said that it will not be able to sell the A800 and H800, two of its modified advanced AI chips, in China.

A800 and H800 were developed last year for the Chinese market in accordance with earlier export regulations.

NVIDIA holds the majority share of China’s $7bn AI processor industry. Experts are of the view that the US curbs will open doors for domestic companies such as Huawei Technologies to gain traction.

Earlier in November 2023, reports emerged that NVIDIA is testing AI chatbots to assist in the semiconductor designing process.