Nvidia H20 chips ‘unsafe for China’, says Chinese state media

A social media account affiliated with state broadcaster CCTV said on Sunday that Nvidia’s H20 artificial intelligence chips pose security concerns for China, after Beijing raised questions over possible backdoor access.

The account, Yuyuan Tantian, published an article on WeChat saying the H20 chips were neither technologically advanced nor environmentally friendly. “When a type of chip is neither environmentally friendly, nor advanced, nor safe, as consumers, we certainly have the option not to buy it,” the article concluded.

Read: US licenses Nvidia to export chips to China

Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The H20 chips were developed by Nvidia for the Chinese market after the US imposed export restrictions on advanced AI chips in late 2023.

The administration of US President Donald Trump banned their sales in April amid escalating trade tensions with China, but reversed the ban in July.

China’s cyberspace watchdog said on July 31 that it had summoned Nvidia to a meeting to ask whether the H20 chips contained any backdoor security risks — a hidden method of bypassing normal authentication or security controls. Nvidia later said its products had no “backdoors” that would allow remote access or control.

In its article, Yuyuan Tantian claimed Nvidia chips could perform functions including “remote shutdown” through a hardware “backdoor”.

The account’s comments followed criticism of Nvidia by People’s Daily, which in a commentary this month said Nvidia must produce “convincing security proofs” to ease Chinese users’ concerns and regain market trust.