The Donald Trump administration has reportedly seen more than $1 billion (approximately 1.37 trillion won) worth of Nvidia artificial intelligence (AI) chips smuggled into China in the past three months.
According to the Financial Times on the 24th (local time), several distributors in China have begun supplying the banned Nvidia B200 chip to data centers of Chinese corporations since May. This movement appeared shortly after the Trump administration imposed export restrictions on the low-spec H20 chip for sales in China. The B200 is Nvidia's latest AI chip based on the Blackwell architecture, outperforming the previous Hopper-based H20 chip.
Multiple sources said, "Despite the ban on sales of the B200 chip within China, it can easily be obtained in the active illegal market for American-made chips." Distributors in Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Anhui provinces have reportedly sold not only the B200 but also other sanctioned items such as the H100 and H200. The Nvidia chips smuggled in during the past three months have exceeded $1 billion.
Experts noted that Southeast Asia is becoming a market where Chinese corporations are securing chips. In response, the U.S. Department of Commerce is reportedly discussing additional export restrictions on high-end AI products for countries like Thailand starting in September.
In response, Nvidia stated, "Building data centers with smuggled chips is technically and financially inefficient," adding that "we only provide services and support for officially certified products."