Nvidia H200 chips bought by blacklisted Chinese university

Nvidia H200 chips were bought last month by Northwestern Polytechnical University, a Chinese defence-linked school that sits on a US export blacklist, according to a procurement record reported by Reuters and carried by Al Jazeera. The university paid 874,700 yuan, about $123,000, for two of the powerful AI processors.

The record, dated October 21 and posted on the university's website, showed the purchase was made for its management school. The chips came from a company called Shaanxi Bosuan Network Technology rather than directly from Nvidia.

The findings land at a difficult moment for the chipmaker and its chief executive, Jensen Huang, who is under growing pressure in Washington.

Why the Nvidia H200 is restricted

The H200 is among the company's most capable chips for training and running advanced AI systems. Exports are subject to US licence approval, and licences are normally refused for blacklisted organisations.

Northwestern Polytechnical, based in the city of Xi'an, is a member of China's "Seven Sons of National Defense", a group of elite universities focused on defence work. It carries out research linked to military aircraft, missiles and satellites.

The US Department of Commerce added the university to its Entity List trade blacklist in 2001, citing alleged involvement in missile proliferation and its military research. Washington tightened the rules in 2019, so that licences to export controlled US technology to the school face a policy of denial in most cases.

President Donald Trump's administration began allowing some sales of the chip to China on a case-by-case basis in January. That change did not remove the separate restrictions on Entity List groups such as Northwestern Polytechnical.

Buying and renting through local suppliers

The two-chip purchase was not the only way the university gained access to top-end hardware. Procurement records show it also signed five contracts this year to rent computing capacity from Chinese companies, giving it use of H200s and other powerful Nvidia processors.

Reuters reviewed 26 Chinese procurement and corporate records from this year. It found universities and research institutes either buying US-restricted Nvidia chips or renting Nvidia-powered computing services through domestic suppliers. Several had close links to China's defence industry or military research.

The main routes described in the report:

• Buying chips outright from local resellers
• Renting server time on machines that contain restricted chips
• Using domestic suppliers instead of dealing with Nvidia directly

Pressure builds on Jensen Huang

Huang has argued that continued US sales to China help keep America ahead in technology and keep Chinese customers dependent on Nvidia. Some US lawmakers disagree, saying access to the most powerful chips can speed up China's work on AI for weapons design, intelligence analysis and military modernisation.

Members of both parties in Congress have called for tighter controls, including chip-tracking requirements and more oversight of exports.

The scrutiny has sharpened after reports that Huang was targeted by a Chinese spying operation. Republican Senator Kevin Cramer of the Senate Banking Committee told Politico that Huang should step down, citing the "potential for extortion" linked to his relationship with Alice Huang, a woman accused of working for Chinese intelligence.

Three Republican committee chairmen have asked Huang for a briefing on November 18 about his reported contacts with her. Huang admitted on Sunday that he had been unfaithful to his wife.

Nvidia's board announced an independent investigation the same day into whether the 63-year-old, a Taiwan-US dual national, had been targeted by a foreign intelligence operation. The company said it had no reason to believe US national security or confidential information had been compromised.

Alice Huang is a former executive at a Singapore-based data centre company. Our earlier report on the Nvidia spy memo and Megaspeed covers earlier reporting on the alleged spy links.

What it means for the region

The records suggest that export rules are hard to enforce once advanced AI hardware passes into local supply chains, whether through resale or rented server time. For readers following the data centre build-out closer to home, our coverage of Thailand's data centre tiers explains the local rules, and our report on the Anthropic IPO looks at the wider AI investment boom.

The original report was published by Al Jazeera.

Image: The campus of Northwestern Polytechnical University in Xi'an, the school whose Nvidia H200 purchase was revealed in procurement records. Photo by 星巴克女王 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.