NVIDIA's banned AI chips are getting repaired in China
Even with the US ban on NVIDIA's top AI chips like the H100 and A100, China's appetite for these GPUs hasn't slowed down—if anything, it's grown.
Since late 2022, small repair shops in Shenzhen have been busy fixing hundreds of these banned chips every month, a trend that points to ongoing smuggling and steady demand from big players like government agencies.
Repairing banned GPUs costs $2,750
Repairing one of these GPUs now costs up to 20,000 yuan (about $2,750), and most services just cover diagnostics or part swaps.
The only legal alternative—the H20 chip—is so pricey it doesn't really work for companies training large language models.
Meanwhile, US lawmakers want tighter tracking on chip sales to tackle smuggling, but NVIDIA itself isn't offering official support for restricted products in China.