"Sophisticated" backdoors: Nvidia must explain itself to China's government
The Cyberspace Administration of China is making serious accusations against Nvidia. The company must prove that it does not use backdoors.
Nvidia's AI accelerator H100, which Nvidia sells to China in a slimmed-down version as H20.
(Image: Nvidia)
Nvidia representatives in China had to explain themselves to the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) on July 31. The reason for this is the H20 AI accelerators specially designed for China, which Nvidia has recently been allowed to sell there again.
The CAC's accusations are far-reaching:
"It was recently revealed that Nvidia's compute chips have serious security issues. Previously, US lawmakers demanded that the United States export advanced chips with tracking and positioning capabilities.
Experts in the field of artificial intelligence in the United States have revealed that the technology for 'tracking and positioning' and 'remote shutdown' in Nvidia's compute chips is mature.
In order to protect the network security and data security of Chinese users, the Cyberspace Administration of China conducted a survey of Nvidia on July 31, 2025 in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Network Security Law, the Data Security Law and the Personal Information Protection Law, and requested Nvidia to explain the security risk of the vulnerability of H20 chips sold in China and provide relevant documents."
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Background partly unclear
The first part refers to a bipartisan bill from May 2025 that calls for geotracking capabilities in all powerful chips for AI training. The draft is so far-reaching that the law would even include high-end graphics cards such as the GeForce RTX 5090. The initiators want to prevent hardware smuggling to China. The law has not yet been passed.
We are not aware of any confirmation that there are "sophisticated technologies" for tracking and switching off remotely. Which experts are meant remains questionable.
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