Documents from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) portal have revealed that the Chinese military attempted to acquire Nvidia chips for use on its AI servers and robot dogs. The procurement records from the PLA’s official bidding portal show multiple requests over the past year for both banned and permitted Nvidia chips. The documents show that the PLA requested the H100, RTX 6000, and H20 chips, some of which the U.S. had banned from export to China. Three bids published in April requested the banned Nvidia chips to run servers that can power DeepSeek’s most advanced AI models, such as the DeepSeek-R1 671B. China pursues banned GPUs in defense deals According to the Chinese military documents, one of the bids requested H20 cards, while another called for four RTX 6000 GPUs as part of an intelligent decision-making support system. A provisional supplier for the RTX 6000 chips had already been selected in June, but the contract details were still pending finalization. Another bid from the same month was requested for the H100 graphics card, which was banned from 2022, citing specific requirements for the original packaging and on-site installation. A similar request was made in July 2024 for the H100 GPUs. One project from April shows the military requesting a 33-pound robotic dog be fitted with an Nvidia Jetson computing module for a training program. The request was canceled later, although Jetson modules are generally not restricted for most uses. It remains unclear whether either of those chips was successfully submitted. In an exclusive interview with Business Insider, Ryan Fedasiuk, a former U.S. State Department advisor, revealed that the PLA can acquire restricted technology through indirect means. He added that there are ample shortcuts, subsidiaries, and shell companies that the PLA can and does not use to source those chips maliciously from American companies, including Nvidia. A Nvidia spokesperson stated that China has more than enough domestic chips for its military applications and that buying a small number of older chips to test U.S. competition is not a national security concern. The spokesperson also insisted that restricted products would lack support, software, and maintenance. U.S. policymakers push to reinstate the Nvidia chip ban Nvidia has faced pressure from the Chinese government with a summons from the Chinese internet regulator. Nvidia was summoned on Thursday to address allegations of backdoor security risks in its H20 AI chips, but they denied the claims. The U.S. recently lifted the ban on the H20 chips, effectively allowing Nvidia to resume selling them to China. However, the lift has sparked concerns among U.S. security officials, and a group of 20 policymakers recently drafted a letter to the Commerce Department urging it to reimpose the ban on the H20 AI chips. The policymakers argued that the chips could support China’s military. Craig Singleton, senior director at the Foundation of Defense Democracies, co-signed the letter and warned that the policy reversal could create floodgates. The Commerce Department said it has already tightened controls compared to the previous administration and would continue reviewing all license applications carefully. In July, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang revealed in an interview with CNN that the Chinese military would likely avoid relying on U.S. technology due to its unpredictability. The Chinese Ministry of National Defense has not yet responded with any comment. Ryan Fedasiuk, who reviewed some of the procurement documents, said the PLA and Chinese AI firms prefer Nvidia hardware because of its superior processing power. He believes nobody can beat Nvidia, and Huawei is not close. Want your project in front of crypto’s top minds? Feature it in our next industry report, where data meets impact.
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