Nvidia will start tracking chips amid rumors of smuggling into China - ForkLog: cryptocurrencies, AI, singularity, future

# Nvidia will start tracking chips amid rumors of smuggling into China

Nvidia Corporation has developed technology to verify the location of its processors. Reuters reports.

The feature was introduced privately and will be offered to clients as an option. The tool uses “confidential computing capabilities of graphics processors (GPU)”.

The software is designed to allow “tracking the overall performance of the chip” — which is allegedly standard practice among companies that purchase processors in large quantities for big data centers.

The location of the semiconductors is determined by analyzing the latency during data exchange with Nvidia servers. The company plans to make the software open source so that third-party researchers can examine it.

Nvidia emphasized that “there are no functions that allow the company to remotely control registered systems or take actions regarding them.” Telemetric data is read-only.

“There is no way for Nvidia or a remote participant to disable the chip in graphics processors,” — said company representatives.

The feature will first appear on new Blackwell chips. An option to add it to other generations of semiconductors is being considered.

Smuggling issues

Nvidia’s decision was made following reports of its chips being smuggled into China. According to a source, DeepSeek uses processors imported into the country without official permission.

“We have not seen any confirmation or received reports of ‘phantom data centers’ built to deceive us and our partners. Although such smuggling seems unlikely, we are investigating all reports received,” — said a company representative.

The US has banned the export of flagship Blackwell chips to China to maintain leadership in the AI race.

Recall that in December, US President Donald Trump announced that authorities would allow Nvidia to sell H200 chips to “approved clients” in China and other countries.