Chipmaker Nvidia Corp. has revealed that it’s now shipping a hobbled version of its latest graphics processing unit for video gamers in China, after the U.S. government announced it was tightening its restrictions on the hardware it’s allowed to sell in that country.

The China-only version of the GTX 4090 D chip that’s now listed for sale on Nvidia’s Chinese website comes with approximately 10% fewer processing cores compared to the 4090 that’s marketed in other countries. Nvidia told Bloomberg that the GeForce 4090 D chip was designed to comply with the U.S. government’s export controls, and will only be offered to customers in China.

Earlier this year, Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang told investors that the company would produce scaled-down versions of its latest products specifically for Chinese customers, ensuring they comply with the U.S.’s rules on exports to that country. Seeking to hamper China’s ability to advance its capabilities in artificial intelligence, the U.S. has limited its access to the most powerful chips.

Nvidia, which last year became the world’s most valuable chipmaker, told Bloomberg the new chip was developed following extensive engagement with the U.S. government. It will be shipped to Chinese customers starting in January.

The Chinese version of the 4090 chip will also have fewer processing sub-units, which are useful for accelerating AI workloads, the company explained.

Despite the U.S.’s caution, the GeForce 4090 D chip is not really designed to support the most advanced AI workloads. Instead, that honor goes to Nvidia’s AI accelerators, where the flagship model is the Nvidia H100 graphics processing unit. Accelerators are GPUs that have been optimized to run AI workloads at the fastest possible speeds, and have become the foundation of this year’s explosion in AI applications.

The U.S. government first revealed it will be placing limitations on the kinds of chips that can be exported to China in 2022, and Nvidia responded by introducing a scaled-down version of what was then its most powerful AI accelerator, the A100 GPU. Then in October, the U.S. announced it would be further tightening its restrictions on China, compelling Nvidia once again to reinvent its latest products to ensure they comply with the new rules.

Although investors initially had concerns over the new export rules, Nvidia reassured the market that there was plenty of demand elsewhere for the company’s most powerful AI products. In the year to date, the value of the company’s stock has more than tripled, and earlier this year it became the world’s first semiconductor company to hit a market capitalization of more than $1 trillion.

Image: Nvidia