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Democratic lawmakers aren't the only ones worried about Nvidia selling cutting-edge AI chips to China. Ironically, the Chinese government is concerned, too.
On Thursday, the Cyberspace Administration of China flagged Nvidia's H20 AI GPU as a potential spying risk, after Nvidia secured White House approval to sell the product in China. It summoned Nvidia to discuss its concerns about the H20 containing “backdoors.”
In a statement, the agency noted that US lawmakers have floated a proposed bill to require Nvidia to install location-tracking technology on high-end GPUs. The bill's sponsor, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), says doing so will help prevent the technology from falling into the hands of “adversaries like Communist China.”
Without elaborating, China's cybersecurity agency also cited unnamed “US AI experts” who claim Nvidia chips contain mature tracking and remote shutdown capabilities. The agency has asked Nvidia to submit documentation that proves the H20 doesn’t pose a spying risk.
In response, Nvidia tells PCMag: "Cybersecurity is critically important to us. Nvidia does not have 'backdoors' in our chips that would give anyone a remote way to access or control them."
According to Reuters, Nvidia has ordered Taiwan’s TSMC to build 300,000 H20 units to meet the demand in China, an indicator that the GPU will become widely used in Chinese data centers.
Although the H20 was downgraded to comply with US export controls, Democratic lawmakers fear the AI chip will still prove powerful enough to help the country develop cutting-edge AI technologies for a wide variety of applications, including for the military, putting US national security at risk.
However, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has defended the advanced chip sales to China, arguing the country is bound to develop cutting-edge AI, with or without US tech. “The question is not whether China will have AI. It already does. The question is whether one of the world’s largest AI markets will run on American platforms,” he said in May.
Meanwhile, the US Commerce Department notes that H20 shipments to China still require an export license. “The Trump Administration will consider any H20 license applications carefully, accounting for both the benefits and the costs of potential exports from America, and considering the views of experts across the US Government,” the department tells PCMag.