The findings come as Nvidia and its CEO Jensen Huang face installing analysis in Washington over his lobbying for looser constraints on sales of AI chips to China, following reports declaring he was targeted by a Chinese spying operation.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has actually argued that continued United States sales to China would maintain American technological management and keep Chinese clients reliant on United States
Beijing,Nov 11, 2026 13:47 IST
A Chinese university with deep ties to individuals’s Liberation Army purchased Nvidia’s effective H200 AI chips last month in spite of being on a United States export blacklist, procurement records reveal, highlighting spaces in Washington’s efforts to suppress China’s access to innovative innovation.
The findings come as Nvidia and its CEO Jensen Huang face installing examination in Washington over his lobbying for looser limitations on sales of AI chips to China, following reports declaring he was targeted by a Chinese spying operation.
Huang has actually argued that continued United States sales to China would protect American technological management and keep Chinese clients reliant on United States innovation. Some United States legislators state access to Nvidia’s most effective AI chips can speed China’s advancement of AI systems for weapons style, intelligence analysis and military modernisation.
Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress have actually prompted more powerful controls on China’s access to sophisticated AI chips, such as chip-tracking requirements and higher congressional oversight of exports. 3 Republican congressional committee chairmen have actually asked for an instruction with Huang on November 18 over his noted contacts with a supposed Chinese intelligence operative.
Northwestern Polytechnical University, a member of China’s “Seven Sons of National Defense” group of elite defence-focused universities, purchased 2 H200 chips last month for 874,700 yuan ($123,000), according to an October 21 procurement record on its site.
The chips were bought for its management school from Shaanxi Bosuan Network Technology instead of straight from Nvidia, the record reveals.
The H200 is amongst Nvidia’s many capable chips for training and running innovative AI systems and goes through United States export licence approvals, which are typically rejected for blacklisted organizations such as Northwestern Polytechnical.
Northwestern Polytechnical likewise purchased gain access to this year to H200 chips and other effective Nvidia AI processors through 5 agreements for leased computing capability from Chinese business, procurement records reveal.
Reuters is reporting the chip purchases and calculating agreements for the very first time. Northwestern Polytechnical, Nvidia and the United States Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, which manages export controls, did not react to ask for remark. Reuters might not figure out contact information for Shaanxi Bosuan Network Technology.
TRADE BLACKLIST
Based in the northwestern city of Xian, Northwestern Polytechnical performs research study associated to military airplane, rockets and satellites.
The United States Commerce Department included the university to its trade blacklist, called the Entity List, in 2001 over its supposed participation in missile-proliferation activities and military research study. It tightened up the limitations in 2019, making licences for exports of regulated United States innovation to the university topic to a policy of rejection in many situations.
Northwestern Polytechnical’s purchases demonstrate how Chinese organizations with military ties continue to get United States AI calculating power through domestic providers, either by purchasing chips outright or leasing access to servers including them.
A Reuters evaluation of 26 Chinese procurement and business records from this year discovered universities and research study organizations purchasing US-restricted Nvidia chips or leasing access to Nvidia-powered computing services that utilize such chips through domestic providers. Numerous had close links to China’s defence market or military research study.
The universities called in the records did not react to ask for remark.
NVIDIA CHIPS FOR MILITARY-LINKED RESEARCH
United States President Donald Trump’s administration started enabling some H200 exports to China on a case-by-case basis in January. That policy did not raise the different limitations using to Entity List organisations such as Northwestern Polytechnical.
The January licensing guidelines likewise need safeguards to avoid blacklisted entities and military end-users from remotely accessing chips exported under the policy, which covers H200 processors and less sophisticated designs.
In addition to the management school’s straight-out purchase of the 2 H200 chips, procurement records reveal the university’s cybersecurity school granted 2 seven-month agreements in January for access to servers including 8 H200 chips each. The agreements, worth 441,700 yuan and 441,000 yuan, covered fine-tuning AI designs and reinforcement-learning training.
It likewise leased access to servers consisting of 8 Nvidia A100 chips and 8 A800 chips. The A100 and A800 are prohibited from export to all Chinese entities, though the H200 is the most innovative of those pointed out in Northwestern Polytechnical’s procurement records.
In April, another university institute purchased computing services needing a minimum of 24 A100 chips in a 375,000 yuan agreement for structural and fluid-dynamics simulations.
The awards went to a number of obscure Chinese innovation providers. The records provided little details about where the processors came from or where the leased servers ran.
Under Chinese law, public procurement companies need to confirm that providers can satisfy orders before revealing winning bidders and signing agreements.
A WIDER MARKET
The procurement records reveal a broader market for limited Nvidia AI chips and calculating services at Chinese universities.
Shenzhen University purchased 3 H100 processors, another high-end Nvidia AI chip prohibited by the United States, for 769,800 yuan in September. Wuhan University of Technology purchased a server consisting of an H100 chip for 355,000 yuan in June and 4 A100 chips in a different 344,000 yuan purchase, the records reveal.
Beihang University, another of the Seven Sons of National Defense universities, purchased 4 A800 processors for 489,000 yuan in April. Beihang has close ties to China’s aerospace and defence markets and carries out research study for military air travel and area programs.
2 federal government procurement statements in July and September called providers chosen to offer computing services utilizing Nvidia H800 and A800 chips limited from export to China to the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. One noted H800 gain access to at 10 yuan per chip-hour. A different January procurement award called a provider of 6 A100 chips worth 484,800 yuan for a Shenzhen-based public organization.
Reuters has actually formerly reported that Chinese organizations obtained limited Nvidia chips embedded in servers made by Super Micro Computer, Dell and Gigabyte through domestic resellers. Reuters has actually likewise recorded an underground market in China for limited Nvidia chips sourced from abroad stocks and third-country intermediaries.
Recently, Reuters reported that little amounts of H200 chips had actually reached China through indirect paths while Beijing kept approval for massive imports.
– Ends
Discover more from PMN S.P.O.R.T.S - A PRIME MEDIA NETWORK BRAND
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
