Chinese military institutions, state-run AI research centers, and universities have found ways to obtain Nvidia’s AI and HPC GPUs, such as the A100 and H100 models, even with US export restrictions in place. Although the US banned the exports of these chips to China and Hong Kong in September 2022, individuals in China continued to acquire them, as reported by Reuters.
Numerous tender documents demonstrate that over 100 procurements involved the purchase of A100 chips, and some tenders after the ban included the acquisition of the A800 model. Noteworthy buyers of these processors include prestigious Chinese universities and entities with potential military connections. The Harbin Institute of Technology and the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, both subject to US export restrictions, managed to purchase Nvidia’s AI and HPC GPUs. The Harbin Institute, for instance, obtained six A100 processors in May, while the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China bought one A100 compute GPU in December 2022, although its use was not specified. Additionally, Tsinghua University has been actively procuring these chips, with around 80 A100 chips purchased since the ban was implemented in 2022.
The supply chain for these Nvidia chips in China remains unclear. Suppliers, including Nvidia and its authorized resellers, have not been identified due to obvious reasons. Allegedly, Chinese vendors acquire excess stock from large shipments to US companies or import them through intermediary countries like India, Taiwan, and Singapore.
Nvidia has expressed compliance with relevant export control laws and expects its customers to uphold the same standards. If any unlawful resale of their products is discovered, the company is prepared to take appropriate action. Meanwhile, the US Department of Commerce has not commented on the issue, although department representatives have publicly emphasized the government’s commitment to closing loopholes in export restrictions.
Experts, such as Chris Miller, a professor at Tufts University and author of “Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology,” have commented on the situation. Miller acknowledges that completely preventing chip exports is impractical due to their size and ease of smuggling. Instead, the US strategy aims to hinder China’s AI development by making it challenging to build large clusters based on advanced processors.
The source of the article is from the blog klikeri.rs