Northwestern Polytechnical University, a Chinese institution with deep links to the People's Liberation Army, bought two of Nvidia's H200 artificial intelligence chips in October even though it sits on a US export blacklist. A procurement record dated 21 October on the university's own website shows the purchase for its management school at a price of 874,700 yuan, about 123,000 dollars. The chips came through a Chinese supplier, Shaanxi Bosuan Network Technology, not directly from Nvidia.
The H200 is among Nvidia's most capable chips for training and running advanced AI systems. Exporting it requires a US licence, and licences are normally refused to blacklisted institutions.
Rented capacity as well
The university also gained access to H200 chips and other powerful processors through five contracts signed this year to rent computing capacity from Chinese companies. Its cybersecurity school signed two seven-month contracts in January, worth 441,700 yuan and 441,000 yuan, for servers carrying eight H200 chips each, to fine-tune AI models and run reinforcement-learning training. It also rented servers using A100 and A800 chips, which are barred from export to every Chinese entity.
The university is based in Xi'an and works on military aircraft, missiles and satellites. It belongs to a group of defence-focused universities known as the Seven Sons of National Defence. Washington put it on its Entity List in 2001 over alleged missile proliferation and military research and tightened the restrictions in 2019.
A wider pattern
A review of 26 Chinese procurement and corporate records from this year found other universities and research bodies buying restricted Nvidia chips or renting computing power built on them. Shenzhen University bought three H100 processors for 769,800 yuan in September. Beihang University, another of the defence-linked group, bought four A800 processors for 489,000 yuan in April. The University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was named in official notices for H800 and A800 computing services.
The Trump administration began allowing some H200 exports to China case by case in January, but that did not lift restrictions on Entity List organisations. Its licensing rules require safeguards that stop blacklisted entities and military end users from reaching exported chips remotely. Nvidia, the university and the US Commerce Department's export control bureau did not respond to requests for comment, and the other universities did not respond either.
Pressure in Washington
Nvidia and its chief executive Jensen Huang are under growing scrutiny in Washington over his lobbying for looser limits on chip sales to China, after reports that a Chinese intelligence operative targeted him. Huang argues that continued US sales keep Chinese customers dependent on American technology. Some lawmakers say access to top-end chips speeds China's AI work on weapons design, intelligence analysis and military modernisation. Members of both parties have called for chip-tracking requirements and tougher oversight, and three Republican committee chairmen have asked for a briefing with Huang on 18 November about his reported contacts.
