Chinese Research Institute Utilizing "Banned" NVIDIA H100 AI GPUs

[T0@st]

NVIDIA's freshly unveiled "Blackwell" B200 and GB200 AI GPUs will be getting plenty of coverage this year, but many organizations will be sticking with current or prior generation hardware. Team Green is in the process of shipping out compromised "Hopper" designs to customers in China, but the region's appetite for powerful AI-crunching hardware is growing. Last year's China-specific H800 design, and the older "Ampere" A800 chip were deemed too potent—new regulations prevented further sales. Recently, AMD's Instinct MI309 AI accelerator was considered "too powerful to gain unconditional approval from the US Department of Commerce." Natively-developed solutions are catching up with Western designs, but some institutions are not prepared to queue up for emerging technologies.

NVIDIA's new H20 AI GPU as well as Ada Lovelace-based L20 PCIe and L2 PCIe models are weakened enough to get a thumbs up from trade regulators, but likely not compelling enough for discerning clients. The Telegraph believes that NVIDIA's uncompromised H100 AI GPU is currently in use at several Chinese establishments—the report cites information presented within four academic papers published on ArXiv, an open access science website. The Telegraph's news piece highlights one of the studies—it was: "co-authored by a researcher at 4paradigm, an AI company that was last year placed on an export control list by the US Commerce Department for attempting to acquire US technology to support China's military." Additionally, the Chinese Academy of Sciences appears to have conducted several AI-accelerated experiments, involving the solving of complex mathematical and logical problems. The article suggests that this research organization has acquired a very small batch of NVIDIA H100 GPUs (up to eight units). A "thriving black market" for high-end NVIDIA processors has emerged in the region—last Autumn, the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) published an in-depth article about ongoing smuggling activities.



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[The Terrible Puddle]

Crazy how the US can dictate who you can sell a GPU to

 

[mechtech]

Crazy how the US can dictate who you can sell a GPU to

Not really and not only the US. During the Cold War, there was probably close to 0 trade with anyone not on the "ally" list.

 

[kondamin]

Not really and not only the US. During the Cold War, there was probably close to 0 trade with anyone not on the "ally" list.

no, we were trading with the soviets, which is what makes the destruction of nordstream a very extreme thing to do that will have long lasting consequences.
Even at the hight of the coldwar gas and oil was flowing from east to west.

 

[remixedcat]

Seagate sold HDDs to huawei even tho they were sanctions

 

[Crackong]

Crazy how the US can dictate who you can sell a GPU to

And it is equally crazy when one of your phone app just suddenly call you out automatically and dial to your local senator all in one go.

 

[kondamin]

And it is equally crazy when one of your phone app just suddenly call you out automatically and dial to your local senator all in one go.

There is an app that gets you a direct line to your representative?

 

[Jism]

There's a zillion ways to get those GPU's to china.

You can't stop it.

 

[Crackong]

There is an app that gets you a direct line to your representative?

Yup, enter zip code and it will dial a call to your local senator.

 

[MentalAcetylide]

Not really and not only the US. During the Cold War, there was probably close to 0 trade with anyone not on the "ally" list.

I don't think that's entirely accurate, and I strongly doubt that would hold true in the present. The fact of the matter is if a country has something that another country needs(or rather a large industry within it), they will trade for it, albeit maybe not directly or openly, but there is still "sporadic" trade going on. Just to give an example, production of the American SR-71 Blackbird spy plane beyond a prototype would not have been possible without a lot of Titanium, which was only available from the USSR at the time. That was the age where communication was primarily snail mail, phone, and radio.
Fast forward to the present where the world is connected globally through computers, smartphones, etc., and you can bet there's still trade occurring between countries' respective businesses regardless of their disposition towards each other. If there's a need that results in mutual gain, no amount of sanctions/trade restrictions short of a military blockade is going to curb all trade.