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It looks like Nvidia is trying to stop the White House from force it to install location-tracking technology in its AI chips.
Michael Kratsios, President Trump’s advisor on technology issues, told Bloomberg there’s been discussions about using “software or physical changes” to enable chip-based location tracking to stop Nvidia’s most advanced AI chips from being smuggled into China.
On Tuesday, however, Nvidia published a blog post titled “No Backdoors. No Kill Switches. No Spyware." It doesn't explicitly call out the proposed location tracking system. But the company subtly suggests the idea is flawed, and can't be implemented without a major hardware change.
“Some point to smartphone features like ‘find my phone’ or ‘remote wipe’ as models for a GPU kill switch. That comparison doesn’t hold water — optional software features, controlled by the user, are not hardware backdoors,” Nvidia says.
"Hardwiring a kill switch into a chip is something entirely different: a permanent flaw beyond user control, and an open invitation for disaster," it adds. "It’s like buying a car where the dealership keeps a remote control for the parking brake — just in case they decide you shouldn’t be driving.”
The company's statement comes days after the Chinese government summoned Nvidia to address whether its H20 GPU contains any backdoors. Although Nvidia denies its products pose a security concern, one Republican lawmaker in May floated a bill to require the company to install a location-tracking system for high-end GPUs, including the RTX 5090, when sold outside the country.
The Trump administration’s reported interest in the location tracking doesn’t bode well for Nvidia’s business in China. Last month, the company secured White House approval to sell a downgraded AI GPU, the H20, to the Chinese market, despite concerns it could support the country’s AI ambitions.
That said, the Commerce Department says: "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."
In the meantime, Nvidia is urging the US to exercise restraint when trying to curb AI chip smuggling. “For decades, policymakers have championed industry’s efforts to create secure, trustworthy hardware. Governments have many tools to protect nations, consumers and the economy. Deliberately weakening critical infrastructure should never be one of them," it says.
Those tools include criminal complaints. The Justice Department announced today that two Chinese nationals were arrested in California this weekend for allegedly exporting tens of millions of dollars’ worth of AI chips to China. The agency's press release doesn't specify the chips, but Bloomberg says they're from Nvidia, including the H100.