Recently, the news that U.S. President Trump approved NVIDIA to sell H200 chips to China has continued to spark heated discussions. At this critical moment, Reuters reported on December 10 that NVIDIA has developed a location verification technology that can show in which country its chips are running.

Insiders said that this feature is a software option that NVIDIA had privately demonstrated to customers in recent months but has not yet released, and it will utilize its so-called "Confidential Computing Capabilities" of the graphics processing unit (GPU).

NVIDIA indirectly confirmed this news through a statement. According to NVIDIA, "We are implementing a new software service that allows data center operators to monitor the health and inventory of their entire AI GPU cluster. This customer-installed software agent uses GPU telemetry technology to monitor the cluster's health, integrity, and inventory."

An NVIDIA employee said that the software was initially designed to help customers track the overall computing performance of the chips, but it can also estimate the approximate location of the chip by measuring the delay time when the chip communicates with NVIDIA servers, with accuracy comparable to other internet-based services. The employee also said that this feature will first be available on NVIDIA's next-generation Blackwell architecture chips, although NVIDIA is also researching solutions for previous generations of products.

Reuters believes that this latest location feature developed by NVIDIA targets countries such as China that are subject to U.S. export controls. For a long time, the U.S. government has banned companies like NVIDIA and AMD from exporting high-performance chips to China under the pretext of "national security," and there has been repeated hype in the U.S. about the so-called "mass smuggling of NVIDIA chips to restricted countries." Therefore, Reuters believes that this location feature aims to prevent the "smuggling" of NVIDIA chips.

From the Biden administration to the Trump administration, the United States has implemented a series of chip export restrictions to contain and suppress China's technological development, and these measures have been continuously tightened. NVIDIA's AI chips have been a top priority. Earlier this year, the Trump administration announced a ban on NVIDIA's export of the specially tailored H20 chips, and only after NVIDIA agreed to pay 15% of its sales in China to the U.S. government did it regain the export license for this chip. However, NVIDIA, which is determined to recover the Chinese market at all costs, was exposed to have a "backdoor" issue, causing a huge uproar in the market.

On November 20, Huang Renxun appeared on Fox Business Channel and stated that the export restrictions imposed by the U.S. have caused NVIDIA's chip sales to China to stagnate, and he expects the sales for the next two quarters to be zero.

"I predict that sales in the Chinese market will be zero. The next quarter will be zero, and the one after that will also be zero," said Huang Renxun: "We assume that sales will be zero. If we can overcome all obstacles and reach cooperation with both governments, the Chinese market will undoubtedly be very large." According to him, the current AI chip market in China is approximately $50 billion, and it may grow to $200 billion by the end of 2030."

But NVIDIA still covets the vast Chinese market. Two days ago, U.S. President Trump announced that he would allow NVIDIA to export its H200 chips to China, but the condition is that NVIDIA's exports must ensure the so-called "national security" of the United States, and the U.S. government will receive 25% of the revenue.

Picture of NVIDIA H200 chip, image sourced from NVIDIA's official website

Undoubtedly, Trump's latest statement symbolizes a shift in his policy toward China to some extent. However, an issue that both NVIDIA and the U.S. government have not mentioned is whether China will still pay for NVIDIA chips.

In July this year, Chinese authorities held talks with NVIDIA, requiring it to explain and submit relevant proof materials regarding the security risks of backdoors in the H20 computing chips sold to China. In September, Chinese regulatory authorities issued a statement saying that NVIDIA violated the anti-monopoly law and decided to conduct further investigations accordingly.

Under the circumstances where the "backdoor" issue remains unresolved and the domestic market generally holds doubts about the safety of its products, NVIDIA has been exposed again to develop a "location verification technology," once again bringing up concerns about its security. How many customers are willing to pay for NVIDIA's H200 chips remains unknown.

On December 9, a foreign journalist asked: U.S. President Trump said he would approve the sale of NVIDIA H200 artificial intelligence chips to China. Will China allow the purchase of these H200 chips? Additionally, when will Trump inform China of this decision? Have the leaders of China and the United States spoken on the phone?

Regarding this, the spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Guo Jiajun, said: "We have noted the relevant reports. China has always advocated that China and the United States achieve mutual benefit and win-win through cooperation."

This article is an exclusive piece from Observers, and without permission, it cannot be reprinted.

Original: toutiao.com/article/7582150638436434438/

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