Exclusive-Military-linked Chinese university bought Nvidia H200 chips despite US blacklist, records show

A military-linked Chinese university bought Nvidia H200 graphics processing units even though it is on the U.S. Entity List, which generally bars American companies from supplying it with controlled technology, Reuters reported after reviewing procurement records. The H200 is an advanced AI accelerator that Washington has restricted from export to China, though the Commerce Department has issued some licenses for limited H200 shipments under specific conditions. Reuters said the procurement documents do not indicate whether the university obtained the chips through a licensed transaction or another channel.

The purchase highlights persistent gaps in U.S. export controls on high-end AI hardware. Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang has lobbied for relaxed rules, warning that restrictions accelerate China's domestic chip development, while the Biden administration has kept the tightest controls on the newest Blackwell and Rubin architectures. About 600,000 H200 units are reportedly stuck in Hong Kong awaiting mainland approval, and an eight-card H200 server in China cost over $900,000 at the end of October, roughly three times the price a year earlier, Tom's Hardware reported.

Chinese AI firms have turned to renting computing power from data centers in Southeast Asia and Europe to access banned chips such as the B300 and Blackwell. Nvidia recently told cloud partners worldwide that at least 51% of their services must go to non-Chinese customers, a verbal instruction aimed at curbing this workaround, Tom's Hardware said. The company also more than halved its authorized Asian buyer whitelist and now requires Fleet Intelligence tracking for Southeast Asian providers seeking Nvidia Cloud Partner status. Meanwhile, Chinese demand far outstrips domestic supply: Huawei, Alibaba, Baidu and Cambricon together may produce up to 3.5 million AI chips this year against demand exceeding 5 million, a gap that could more than double next year, according to Tom's Hardware. The Remote Access Security Act, which would extend U.S. export controls to overseas cloud access, has passed the House but not the Senate.