US-blacklisted Chinese university had access to NVIDIA's H200 chips: Report
What's the story
Despite being on a US export blacklist, Northwestern Polytechnical University, a Chinese defense university with close ties to the People's Liberation Army, has acquired NVIDIA's advanced H200 AI chips. The purchase was made through a domestic supplier last month, according to procurement records seen by Reuters. This highlights loopholes in Washington's efforts to restrict China's access to cutting-edge technology.
Lobbying concerns
NVIDIA facing scrutiny over China sales
NVIDIA and its CEO Jensen Huang are facing increased scrutiny in Washington over Huang's lobbying for relaxed restrictions on AI chip sales to China.
This comes after reports of him being targeted by a Chinese espionage operation.
Huang has maintained that continued US sales to China would ensure American technological dominance and keep Chinese customers dependent on US technology.
Legislative push
US lawmakers push for stricter controls on China
Despite Huang's arguments, several US lawmakers are pushing for stricter controls on China's access to advanced AI chips.
They have proposed chip-tracking requirements and increased congressional oversight of exports.
Three Republican congressional committee chairmen have also requested a briefing with Huang over his alleged contacts with a suspected Chinese spy.
Procurement details
Procurement records show purchase was made last month
Procurement records show that Northwestern Polytechnical University bought two H200 chips last month for CNY 874,700 ($123,000).
The purchase was made for its management school from Shaanxi Bosuan Network Technology instead of directly from NVIDIA.
The H200 is one of NVIDIA's most powerful chips for training and running advanced AI systems, and usually requires US export license approvals that are typically denied to blacklisted institutions like Northwestern Polytechnical.
Additional acquisitions
University also rented access to servers containing banned chips
Along with the outright purchase of two H200 chips, procurement records show that NPU's cybersecurity school awarded two seven-month contracts in January for access to servers containing eight H200 chips each.
The contracts were worth CNY 441,700 yuan and CNY 441,000, respectively.
The university also rented access to servers containing eight NVIDIA A100 chips and eight A800 chips, both banned from export to all Chinese entities.