Picture illustration of Nvidia’s H20 chip.
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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 danger 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 aren’t technologically superior or environmentally pleasant.
“When a sort of chip is neither environmentally pleasant, nor superior, nor secure, as customers, we actually have the choice to not purchase it,” the Yuyuan Tantian article reportedly mentioned, including that the article mentioned chips might obtain capabilities together with “distant shutdown” via a {hardware} “backdoor.”
In response, a Nvidia spokesperson informed CNBC that “cybersecurity is critically necessary to us. NVIDIA doesn’t have ‘backdoors’ in our chips that might give anybody a distant option to entry or management them.”
Nvidia on Tuesday equally rejected Chinese language accusations that its AI chips embody a {hardware} operate that might remotely deactivate the chips, also called a “kill swap.”
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 — had 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 navy functions.
Nvidia inventory over the previous 12 months.
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 attainable summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese language President Xi Jinping, the Monetary Occasions reported on Sunday, citing individuals acquainted with 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 needs 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 world AI improvement.
China is amongst Nvidia’s largest markets. Nvidia took a $4.5 billion writedown on its unsold H20 stock in Could and has warned that its topline steering for the July quarter would have been greater by $8 billion with out the chip export restrictions.
Nvidia shares had been up 1% to shut at $182.70 on Friday and are up 36% this 12 months.
