$1 billion of NVIDIA AI chips have been reportedly bought in China regardless of US bans

that $1 billion value of NVIDIA AI chips have been smuggled into China within the three months after the Trump administration . Citing gross sales contracts, firm paperwork and other people with direct information, the publication says {that a} thriving black market arose for American semiconductors. Merchandise bought included NVIDIA’s prime‑tier B200 chips, which have turn into the for American huge tech when coaching AI fashions. Sale of those chips to China is banned by the USA.

With journalists on the bottom in China, Monetary Occasions stories on a veritable net of third‑social gathering knowledge middle operators, middlemen and purportedly smuggled prepared‑constructed racks which have all materialized to satisfy the demand for NVIDIA’s strongest chips. Together with the B200, the H100 and H200 are additionally restricted but extremely wanted. All of those are much more succesful than the weaker H20 chip, which was with export restrictions on the market to China, although even that mannequin has confronted and export bans.

NVIDIA, for its half, advised Monetary Occasions it has “no proof of any AI chip diversion” and that “making an attempt to cobble collectively knowledge facilities from smuggled merchandise is a shedding proposition, each technically and economically.” NVIDIA defined, “Information facilities require service and help, which we offer solely to approved NVIDIA merchandise.”

Photos produced by Monetary Occasions present containers of server racks emblazoned with firm logos comparable to Supermicro and ASUS being marketed on social media in China. These firms deny any information of how their merchandise ended up on the Chinese language black market, and Monetary Occasions is just not alleging any such involvement.

Reporting means that some Southeast Asian international locations have turn into hubs for Chinese language teams to acquire restricted chips. Having these server racks shipped to Thailand or Malaysia could circumvent US export controls. The US Division of Commerce is rising export controls on superior AI chips to those international locations.

The demand for these merchandise is with out query, and as one Chinese language distributor advised Monetary Occasions, “Historical past has confirmed many instances earlier than that given the large revenue, arbitrators will at all times discover a manner.”