China raises security concerns over Nvidia's H20 Chips — hardware may expose user data or hidden tracking functions
But this will unlikely result in shipments ban.
Although Nvidia is now permitted to sell its H20 HGX GPU to Chinese entities without a mandatory U.S. export license, the company may face an unexpected roadblock. According to a Reuters report, China now questions the security of the processor. China's concerns stem from fears that the hardware might expose user data or contain hidden tracking functions.
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) recently subpoenaed Nvidia for a meeting to explain whether the H20 processor includes any security vulnerabilities. This is essentially a response to a U.S. legislative proposal requiring export-restricted AI accelerators (such as Nvidia's H100, H200, B100, and B200) to include tracking and location-check features. Chinese officials are reportedly worried that such additions could endanger personal information.
There are a couple of catches though. The H20 GPU is a cut-down version of the H100 that was created as a tailored solution for China after the U.S. imposed export limits on the performance of processors that can be shipped to China in 2023. The GPU module is not restricted (even though the U.S. government banned its exports for a while in mid-April as part of its effort to ink a trade deal with China) and to that end does not have any tracking devices onboard.
However, the concerns of the CAC may not be related to any security issues, but they could be related to a government plan to limit the sales of American GPUs to Chinese entities, which pay billions to companies like Nvidia and AMD. By contrast, Chinese authorities of are interested in supporting domestic developers and would like Chinese companies to buy AI accelerators from companies like Cambricon, Biren, or Huawei.
Tilly Zhang, an analyst for Gavekal, noted that Beijing now has more confidence in its domestic chip capabilities than in previous years, making it more willing to challenge overseas suppliers. However, analysts still acknowledge that China remains dependent on Nvidia hardware for key uses because the software stack of many (if not the majority) of companies relies on Nvidia's CUDA. Charlie Chai of 86Research suggested that the warning may be largely a symbolic counter to U.S. demands rather than a serious attempt to restrict Nvidia's business. Therefore, despite the ongoing scrutiny, do not expect an outright ban on Nvidia's hardware.
China has a history of accusing U.S. tech companies of security risks. In early 2023, it banned key infrastructure players from buying from Micron. It also raised similar issues with Intel, though those did not result in official government actions.
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Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.
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S58_is_the_goat Reply
Because they're better than the home made trojan laden chips.pug_s said:Why does the Chinese want to buy trogen laden chips? -
SkyBill40 "China's concerns stem from fears that the hardware might expose user data or contain hidden tracking functions."Reply
Awfully rich coming from the Chinese, who actively expose and steal user data on the daily. -
93QSD5 Would be absolutely hilarious if China bans Nvidia GPUs for "national security reason" lmao.Reply -
DalaiLamar ReplyS58_is_the_goat said:Because they're better than the home made trojan laden chips.
Anyone would rather die with home made trojan laden chips. -
DalaiLamar ReplySkyBill40 said:"China's concerns stem from fears that the hardware might expose user data or contain hidden tracking functions."
Awfully rich coming from the Chinese, who actively expose and steal user data on the daily.
Only outperformed by the NSA, CIA and FBI -
DalaiLamar Reply93QSD5 said:Would be absolutely hilarious if China bans Nvidia GPUs for "national security reason" lmao.
Would be wonderful for the local companies. -
nookoool Reply93QSD5 said:Would be absolutely hilarious if China bans Nvidia GPUs for "national security reason" lmao.
Likely a tarriff would make sense to even the playing field and fund the Chinese semiconductor industry at the same time. -
Zizi Mai At this point, China might as well continue to switch all the software away from CUDA based. They already have the AI GPU although may not be the best but still very capable. Some of the latest GPU looks interesting & hope the non server GPU versions are available at reasonable cost as they will be a hit for lower cost gaming rigs.Reply -
abufrejoval No vendor can rightfully go against their own executive.Reply
When vendors are forced by their government (and that applies to any level of locality) to add a backdor to their IoT devices (yeah, you wouldn't immediately classify your GPUs as such, but it's a broad species), the only alternative may well be prison. And likewise, they'll have to keep quiet about them or lie outright. Again, unless you manage to secede into your own corporate metaverse (as big tech is trying to do), you just don't have much of a choice.
And likewise you'll have to conform to the executive whereever you sell your products or offer your services: it's the law!
There is ultimately no escape nor does there seem to be much work going on to resolve it. The current approach, to force everyone into accepting big tech's private converged powers metaverse, has very little chance of a long-term success, especially since digitalization will broaden both the scope of interactions and the conflicts.
The only direction I've been able to think of over the last few years, is that the Internet and the IoT devices on it need to reflect the spatiality of the social codes on the ground via a digital twin, where whatever norms the ground sovereign has enacted, are executed in matching enclaves.
It's a giant undertaking, technically probably not as difficult, because most ingredients seem to exist.
But the reguation and the functional design doesn't even seem to have started, and perhaps this big stone will hurt enough to get things rolling, because those cheap IoT devices or the so called social networks haven't created enough pain, because nobody really needed them anyway.