【Wen/Observer Net, Zhang Jingjuan】As the Trump administration relaxed the export of H200 chips to China, NVIDIA was reported to be secretly testing a location verification technology.

Reuters quoted informed sources on the 10th, reporting that this technology can lock in which country the chip is running in, claiming that this move "is expected to prevent AI chips from being smuggled into countries under export restrictions."

According to the report, NVIDIA has privately demonstrated this feature in recent months and will launch it as an optional software for customers in the future. Informed sources said that it will use the confidential computing capabilities of NVIDIA's graphics processing units (GPUs) to operate.

An NVIDIA executive stated that the initial design purpose was to help customers track the overall computing performance of the chips, while also using the delay information when communicating with NVIDIA's operating servers to achieve chip positioning with precision comparable to other internet services.

NVIDIA's official statement avoided the key points, merely stating in a statement, "We are launching a new software service that allows data center operators to monitor the health and inventory of all AI GPU clusters."

The statement said that this customer-installed software agent will monitor cluster health, integrity, and inventory through GPU telemetry technology.

According to the report, this technology will be first deployed on the latest Blackwell chip, although an NVIDIA executive revealed that the company is also exploring solutions for previous generations of products.

Regarding concerns about "remote control," NVIDIA stated on the 10th that there is no function allowing NVIDIA to remotely control registered systems or perform operations on them, and the telemetry data sent to NVIDIA servers is in "read-only mode," meaning that the company's servers cannot write data back to the chips. "There is no function in NVIDIA GPUs that allows NVIDIA or remote operators to disable the chips, there is no 'kill switch'."

However, software experts said that NVIDIA has the ability to develop chip location verification technology without compromising product security.

Huang Renxun holds Blackwell (left) and H100 (right) NVIDIA

This technological development comes against the backdrop of the ongoing intensification of U.S. chip control policies towards China. From the Biden administration to the Trump administration, the U.S. has continuously increased export restrictions under the pretext of "national security" to block and suppress China's technological development, repeatedly emphasizing the need to prevent so-called "AI chips being massively smuggled into restricted countries like China."

As a major AI chip company, NVIDIA's products have always been a focus of U.S. attention, and its business in China has faced multiple issues. Recently, regarding the security vulnerabilities and monopoly risks facing NVIDIA in China, the Chinese government held talks with NVIDIA in July, requiring it to explain and submit relevant proof materials regarding the security risks of the H20 computing chips sold to China. In September this year, the Chinese regulatory authorities issued a statement saying that NVIDIA violated the anti-monopoly law and decided to conduct further investigations in accordance with the law.

While the U.S. is hyping up the issue of "smuggling," Huang Renxun, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, tried to downplay the "concerns" of the outside world last week (3rd). He said that the GPU used in AI data centers can weigh up to two tons, consisting of 1.5 million parts, with a power consumption of up to 200,000 watts and a cost of $3 million. "Sometimes people say these GPUs are being smuggled, I really want to see - besides, the number of smuggled ones would have to fill a football field."

In the face of encirclement, Chinese companies are accelerating the promotion of AI chip self-replacement, seizing the market share that NVIDIA once dominated. In September this year, Huawei announced the product iteration roadmap for the Ascend AI chip over the next three years, and internet giants such as Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, and ByteDance have also increased their investment in chip R&D and design, striving to gain greater autonomy and controllability in the supply chain.

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian once responded, pointing out that China has repeatedly expressed its firm position on the U.S.'s malicious blockade and suppression of China's semiconductor industry. The U.S. politicizes, generalizes, and instrumentalizes economic and trade and science and technology issues, continuously increasing chip export controls on China, pressuring other countries to suppress China's semiconductor industry. Such actions hinder the development of the global semiconductor industry and ultimately harm themselves, harming others and themselves.

This article is exclusive to Observer Net. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.

Original: toutiao.com/article/7582425875598279202/

Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.