Chinese university buys Nvidia AI H200 chips despite US ban, records show

A Chinese defence-linked university bought two H200 chips last month, as scrutiny grows over Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s affair with an alleged spy for Beijing.

A Chinese university with ties to the army bought Nvidia’s powerful H200 AI chips last month despite being on a US export blacklist.

Northwestern Polytechnical University, a member of China’s “Seven Sons of National Defense” group of elite defence-focused universities, bought two H200 chips last month for 874,700 yuan ($123,000), according to an October 21 procurement record on its website, the Reuters news agency reports.

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The chips were bought for its management school from Shaanxi Bosuan Network Technology rather than directly from Nvidia, the record showed.

The Reuters investigation comes as Nvidia and its CEO Jensen Huang face mounting scrutiny in Washington, DC, over his lobbying for looser ⁠⁠restrictions on sales of AI chips to China, following reports alleging he was targeted by a Chinese spying operation.

The H200 is among Nvidia’s most capable chips for training and running advanced AI systems and is subject to US export licence approvals, which are normally denied for blacklisted institutions such as Northwestern Polytechnical.

Northwestern Polytechnical also bought access this year to H200 ‌‌chips and other powerful Nvidia AI processors through five contracts for rented computing capacity from Chinese companies, procurement records show.

Nvidia CEO Huang has argued that continued US sales to China would preserve US technological leadership and keep Chinese customers reliant on its technology.

However, some US lawmakers say access to Nvidia’s most powerful AI chips can speed China’s development of AI systems for weapons design, intelligence analysis and military modernisation.