Nvidia denies report it is rolling out China AI chip by year-end

Aug. 20 (Reuters) - Nvidia NVDA.O on Thursday denied a report by The Information that it plans to begin shipping a language processing unit (LPU) tailored for Chinese customers by year-end, saying it has no China-specific version of the product on its roadmap.

"The reporting in The Information on Nvidia's LPU is incorrect. We have no LPU sales in the China market today, and no China-specific LPU product in our roadmap," an Nvidia spokesperson said.

Reuters had reported in March that Nvidia was preparing a China-compatible version of AI chips, as it sought to compete in the fast-growing market for AI inference.

Earlier on Thursday, The Information reported, citing two Nvidia employees, that the company planned to begin small-batch shipments of an artificial intelligence chip designed for Chinese customers by the end of the year and that several customers had already placed orders.

According to the report, the chip was a version of Nvidia's LPU, a processor developed using technology licensed from startup Groq that works alongside graphics processing units (GPUs) to speed up AI chatbot responses.

The publication said the chip complied with U.S. export-control rules and that Nvidia had modified software to allow the LPU to operate with processors available in China after its next-generation Vera Rubin AI system became unavailable to the market because of U.S. restrictions.

Nvidia's China business has been in flux in recent months. Washington in May approved sales of the company's H200 AI chips to a limited group of Chinese firms, including Alibaba9988.HK , Tencent 0700.HK and ByteDance, though deliveries only recently began. Nvidia has also been marketing its Vera CPU to Chinese customers.

Chief Executive Jensen Huang had said in May that Nvidia had "largely conceded" China's AI chip market to Huawei Technologies, which has emerged as the company's main domestic rival.