China state media asks Nvidia to prove H20 chips are secure
China's top Internet watchdog summoned Nvidia representatives earlier this week to discuss what Chinese officials called significant security vulnerabilities in the H20. The Cyberspace Administration of China said that Nvidia would need to explain potential security risks and provide documents as needed, citing comments by US lawmakers about the need to install tracking capabilities on advanced chips being exported.
'As soon as 'backdoors' in chips are triggered, we can encounter a 'nightmare',' the People's Daily, a mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party, said in a commentary on Friday (Aug 1). 'We need to maintain the security of the cyberspace and we cannot allow 'infected' chips to be put to work.'
More scrutiny of the artificial intelligence (AI) chip would throw a wrench China's already-contentious trade talks with the US. Santa Clara, California-based Nvidia had designed the H20 to comply with US export controls on its technology, and the company was hoping to start sales after the US granted a license.
'Cybersecurity is critically important to us,' Nvidia said on Thursday. 'Nvidia does not have 'backdoors' in our chips that would give anyone a remote way to access or control them.'
US and Chinese officials met in Stockholm this week to discuss trade terms in talks that Chinese state media said that 'deepened mutual trust', though the two sides still have several disagreements over the potential new tariffs. The warning in People's Daily may signal that Chinese officials don't find H20s, which are less powerful than Nvidia's most high-end chips, to be worthy offerings.
The Trump administration in April barred Nvidia from selling H20s to China in an escalation of the ongoing tech war between the world's two largest economies. Trump officials then pledged to lift those restrictions in July as part of a trade deal for China to allow more sales of rare-earth magnets needed to make a range of high-tech products.
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had touted the resumption of sales of the H20 as a breakthrough that came from bilateral discussions in London, framing it as a concession to China. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, meanwhile, said earlier this week that the magnet issue has been 'solved'. However, it is unclear whether Nvidia has received licenses to resume shipping those semiconductors.
Nvidia boss Jensen Huang himself recently concluded a high-profile visit to Beijing, where he feted national Chinese champions such as DeepSeek and celebrated the country's rising prowess in AI. The billionaire had denied Nvidia installed backdoors in its product, saying that would not make business sense. BLOOMBERG
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