Nvidia tests chip tracking system amid suspicions of smuggling to China
In response to rumors of illegal supply of Nvidia chips to China, the company reportedly began testing software that allows determining the country where the chip is physically located. This was reported by Reuters, citing anonymous sources.
What is known
It concerns a location verification technology that analyzes computing performance and communication delays between servers, which can indirectly indicate the geographical location of the chip. Initially, the new software will be available for the Blackwell lineup and will be optional — customers will decide whether to activate it or not.
Suspicions of smuggling intensified after reports that the Chinese company DeepSeek might have trained its artificial intelligence models on Nvidia Blackwell chips, which are prohibited from export to China. In response, Nvidia stated that it has no confirmations of the creation of so-called "phantom data centers" that could be used to deceive the company and its partners and then be illegally transported abroad. At the same time, the company emphasized that it checks all received signals.
This statement came after the US government allowed Nvidia to sell previous generation H200 chips to selected Chinese clients. At the same time, the new Blackwell chips are not included in this list.
Source: Reuters
