Chinese media says Nvidia H20 AI chips not safe for China
Nvidia's H20 chips pose security concerns for China, a social media account affiliated with China's state media said on Sunday, after Beijing raised concerns over backdoor access in those chips. The H20 chips are also not technologically advanced or environmentally friendly, the account, Yuyuan Tantian, which is affiliated with state broadcaster CCTV, said in an article published on WeChat.
'When a type of chip is neither environmentally friendly, nor advanced, nor safe, as consumers, we certainly have the option not to buy it,' the article concluded. Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
H20 artificial intelligence chips were developed by Nvidia for the Chinese market after the US imposed export restrictions on advanced AI chips in late 2023. The administration of US President Donald Trump banned their sales in April amid escalating trade tensions with China, but reversed the ban in July.
China's cyberspace watchdog said on July 31 that it had summoned Nvidia to a meeting, asking the US chipmaker to explain whether its H20 chips had any backdoor security risks - a hidden method of bypassing normal authentication or security controls. Nvidia later said its products had no 'backdoors' that would allow remote access or control. In its article, Yuyuan Tantian said Nvidia chips could achieve functions including 'remote shutdown' through a hardware 'backdoor.'
Yuyuan Tantian's comment followed criticism against Nvidia by People's Daily, another Chinese state media outlet. In a commentary earlier this month, People's Daily said Nvidia must produce 'convincing security proofs' to eliminate Chinese users' worries over security risks in its chips and regain market trust.
China wants the United States to ease export controls on chips critical for artificial intelligence as part of a trade deal before a possible summit between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
Chinese officials have told experts in Washington that Beijing wants the Trump administration to relax export restrictions on high-bandwidth memory chips, the newspaper reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter. The White House, State Department and China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.
HBM chips, which help perform data-intensive AI tasks quickly, are closely watched by investors due to their use alongside AI graphic processors, particularly Nvidia's.
The FT said China is concerned because the US HBM controls hamper the ability of Chinese companies such as Huawei to develop their own AI chips.
Successive US administrations have curbed exports of advanced chips to China, looking to stymie Beijing's AI and defense development.
While this has impacted US firms' ability to fully address booming demand from China, one of the world's largest semiconductor markets, it still
remains an important
revenue driver for American chipmakers.
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