Photograph illustration of Nvidia’s H20 chip.
Vcg | Visible China Group | Getty Photos
Chip big Nvidia pushed again Sunday in response to allegations from Chinese language state media that its H20 synthetic intelligence chips are a nationwide safety threat for China.
Earlier within the day, Reuters reported Yuyuan Tantian, an account affiliated with Chinese language state broadcaster CCTV, mentioned in an article printed on WeChat that the Nvidia H20 chips are usually not technologically superior or environmentally pleasant.
“When a kind of chip is neither environmentally pleasant, nor superior, nor protected, as customers, we definitely have the choice to not purchase it,” the Yuyuan Tantian article reportedly mentioned, including that the article mentioned chips might obtain features together with “distant shutdown” via a {hardware} “backdoor.”
In response, a Nvidia spokesperson advised CNBC that “cybersecurity is critically vital to us. NVIDIA doesn’t have ‘backdoors’ in our chips that might give anybody a distant strategy to entry or management them.”
Nvidia on Tuesday equally rejected Chinese language accusations that its AI chips embrace a {hardware} operate that would remotely deactivate the chips, also called a “kill change.”
Tensions between the U.S. and China on semiconductor export controls have escalated in latest weeks, even after Nvidia resumed gross sales of its H20 chip to China. Chinese language state media has framed the H20 chip as inferior and harmful in comparison with Nvidia’s different chips, whereas the corporate has defended its chips.
The corporate’s resumption of its H20 shipments reversed a earlier ban on H20 gross sales that was positioned in April by the Trump administration. Nvidia’s H20 chips — a less-advanced semiconductor in comparison with its flagship H100 and B100 chips, for instance — have been developed by Nvidia for the Chinese language market after preliminary export restrictions on superior AI chips in late 2023.
U.S. export controls on some Nvidia chips are rooted in nationwide safety issues that Beijing might use the extra superior chips to achieve a bonus broadly in AI, in addition to in its army functions.
Nvidia inventory over the previous yr.
Chinese language officers, in the meantime, are pushing for the U.S. to ease export controls on high-bandwidth reminiscence chips as a part of a commerce deal earlier than a potential summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese language President Xi Jinping, the Monetary Instances reported on Sunday, citing folks accustomed to the matter.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has supported Trump’s insurance policies whereas additionally lobbying for export licenses for the H20 AI chip. Huang has mentioned he desires Nvidia to ship extra superior chips to China, underscoring his outspoken stance that Nvidia’s chips changing into the worldwide customary for AI computing is finally higher for the U.S. to retain market dominance and affect over international AI growth.
China is amongst Nvidia’s largest markets. Nvidia took a $4.5 billion writedown on its unsold H20 stock in Might and has warned that its topline steerage for the July quarter would have been increased by $8 billion with out the chip export restrictions.
Nvidia shares have been up 1% to shut at $182.70 on Friday and are up 36% this yr.
