Sanctions are not working. China continues to receive banned NVIDIA A100 and H100 chips
Despite the sales ban on certain high-end NVIDIA chips to China (including Hong Kong) in September 2022, Chinese government organizations, including those associated with the military, continue to receive top-of-the-line NVIDIA A100 and H100 GPUs, writes Reuters.
According to tender documents examined by Reuters, Chinese educational and research institutions, along with those affiliated with the People’s Liberation Army, placed bids and received hundreds of A100 and H100 chips from unnamed vendors. And that’s not counting the special cut-down graphics chips that NVIDIA has prepared to circumvent US export restrictions.
Дослідження Reuters виявило, що ні NVIDIA, ні роздрібні продавці, схвалені компанією, не були серед ідентифікованих постачальників забанених чипів. It is unclear (this is really funny – ed. note) how the suppliers purchased these chips.
NVIDIA said it complies with all applicable export control laws and requires its customers to do the same.
“If we learn that a customer has made an unlawful resale to third parties, we’ll take immediate and appropriate action,” a company spokesperson said.
The US Department of Commerce refused to comment on the situation. The US authorities have promised to close loopholes in export restrictions and have restricted access to chips for Chinese companies’ divisions located outside of China.
At the time, Chris Miller, a professor at Tufts University and author of The War of the Chip: The Struggle for the World’s Most Important Technology, said it was unrealistic to think that US export restrictions could be impenetrable, given that chips are small and easy to smuggle.
“The main aim is “to throw sand in the gears of China’s AI development” by making it difficult to build large clusters of advanced chips capable of training AI systems,” he added.