HONG KONG/SHENZHEN, China: Psst! Where can a Chinese buyer purchase top-end Nvidia AI chips in the wake of US sanctions?
President Joe Biden's administration in September ordered Nvidia to stop exporting its two most advanced chips - the A100 and the recently developed H100 - to mainland China and Hong Kong, part of efforts to stymie Chinese AI and supercomputing development amid intensifying political and trade tensions. That was then followed up with an array of semiconductor-related export controls.
Reuters spoke with 10 vendors in Hong Kong and mainland China who described being able to easily procure small numbers of A100s. Their information highlighted both intense demand in China for the chips and the relative ease with which Washington's sanctions can be circumvented for small-batch transactions.
"If we receive information that a customer is breaching their agreement with us and exporting restricted products in violation of the law, we would take immediate and appropriate action," the statement said.