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A recent report revealed that despite the U.S. ban, various entities in China, including military bodies, state-run AI research institutes, and universities, have been acquiring small quantities of Nvidia semiconductors, such as the A100 (A ChatGPT-like model needs 30,000 of these cards) and H100 chips, both banned by the U.S. for export to China.
The high demand for these chips, which are crucial for AI due to their superior data processing capabilities, underlines the challenges the U.S. faces in fully enforcing its export restrictions. Notably, these purchases, often through an underground market, include entities with potential military affiliations. Despite alternatives from companies like Huawei, Nvidia previously held a dominant 90% share in China’s AI chip market. The U.S. aims to impede China’s AI advancements by restricting access to these advanced chips, but experts acknowledge the difficulty in completely enforcing such bans due to the ease of smuggling the small-sized chips. The report highlights that the quantities purchased are relatively small, inadequate for building large AI models like GPT, but sufficient for enhancing existing systems or performing complex tasks. Tsinghua University alone has purchased about 80 A100 (for around $10,000 a piece) chips since the ban, emphasizing the continued reliance on and access to these restricted technologies in China.
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