AI: Where Export Sanctions Are Working

NVIDIA's H100 chip is 814 sq mm (CNET)

Chinese developers of artificial intelligence have been hampered by U.S. export sanctions: [bold added]

Chinese companies are cut off from Nvidia’s A100 chips, the most popular within the industry for AI development, and the next generation version, the H100 released in March, which offers more computational power.

Nvidia created downgraded versions of its chips for the Chinese market, called the A800 and H800, respectively, to meet sanction requirements. Both modified chips reduce the capacity of a chip to communicate with others.

The products provide an effective alternative for developing small-scale AI models, such as those used in the recommendation algorithm driving ByteDance’s short-video app TikTok. But the handicap throttles the development of larger AI models, which require the coordination of hundreds or thousands of chips.

Through software workarounds, clustering of NVIDIA's less powerful H800's, and designing their own chips, the Chinese hope to keep pace with AI development elsewhere.

Given the speed of technological advancement, small leads become larger over time if one side lacks the tools. The sanctions are not completely leakproof, but they appear to be having their intended effect.