China bypasses US export bans with Nvidia chip purchases

Hanno Labuschagne

Hanno Labuschagne

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China bypasses US export bans with Nvidia chip purchases

Chinese government- and military-linked institutions bought small amounts of Nvidia Corp. semiconductors over the past year, evading export bans implemented by the US, Reuters reported citing tender documents.

Neither Nvidia nor retailers approved by the company were among the suppliers, according to Reuters.

[Bloomberg]
 
Swa said:
Haha, bans just mean detour, always. When will they learn?
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It's not a "GPU" ban. It's some GPUs and the highest end AI compute chips. And, it's not a "China ban". The restrictions include many countries. Chips that score above a certain benchmark in AI modelling performance are targeted. And for good reason.
Most NVidia GPUs are not included in the ban. Gamers there can still game. Not even all NVidia AI chips are included in the ban.

The bans are not unreasonable.

So yeah... Obviously this will lead to more tension. Obviously. Which I for one don't think serves anybody's best interests. There's a lot of simplistic and uninformed opinions on the matter though.
 
Ragnarök said:
Why the lower chips will just take a bit longer
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Not so. You already need 10s of thousands of these high end chips to train advanced model like OpenAI's in competitive timeframes. You would need hundreds of thousands of lower grade chips. Which becomes even more difficult to source, if not outright impossible to source or even incorporate/power in a server farm.

They're obviously not stealing these chips just to create a few basic models. You can be sure they are burning to successfully reverse engineer them.
 
The Trutherizer said:
Not so. You already need 10s of thousands of these high end chips to train advanced model like OpenAI's in competitive timeframes. You would need hundreds of thousands of lower grade chips. Which becomes even more difficult to source, if not outright impossible to source or even incorporate/power in a server farm.

They're obviously not stealing these chips just to create a few basic models. You can be sure they are burning to successfully reverse engineer them.
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Read that apparently companies in China is already looking elsewhere for their AI chips. Huawei being one of them.
 
Ooh, another military conflict looming. I mean China is threatening global stability... First Muslim Chinese being treated badly and now this??? Nuke them I say
 
The Trutherizer said:
It's not a "GPU" ban. It's some GPUs and the highest end AI compute chips. And, it's not a "China ban". The restrictions include many countries. Chips that score above a certain benchmark in AI modelling performance are targeted. And for good reason.
Most NVidia GPUs are not included in the ban. Gamers there can still game. Not even all NVidia AI chips are included in the ban.

The bans are not unreasonable.

So yeah... Obviously this will lead to more tension. Obviously. Which I for one don't think serves anybody's best interests. There's a lot of simplistic and uninformed opinions on the matter though.
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I don't care how it's managed and whether it's reasonable. Bans just don't work as you can't control a market.
 
Swa said:
I don't care how it's managed and whether it's reasonable. Bans just don't work as you can't control a market.
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Well... Many have the opinion that the US is as aware of this as anybody. That the plan is to simply ensure that China can't smuggle enough. And you do need quite a few to be in that competition at the same level. And thus far, that is working. And it's not just the market. China has chosen to not respect the trade restrictions. It has not banned the smuggling of the goods in its own borders. And it's the government itself, not the market, that is the principle participant in the illicit trade.
 
Vorastra said:
The US seems to only like the "rules-based free market" as long as its not being used by a country they think is a serious competitor.
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No, they just don't want dodgy commie countries getting the tech. They need to track down these loopholes and plug them fast.
 
neoprema said:
No, they just don't want dodgy commie countries getting the tech. They need to track down these loopholes and plug them fast.
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Wait till the dodgy countries have superior tech and then refuse to share it with the West.
 
For the US it's all about the money. Some government official is probably involved again...
 
The Trutherizer said:
Well... Many have the opinion that the US is as aware of this as anybody. That the plan is to simply ensure that China can't smuggle enough. And you do need quite a few to be in that competition at the same level. And thus far, that is working. And it's not just the market. China has chosen to not respect the trade restrictions. It has not banned the smuggling of the goods in its own borders. And it's the government itself, not the market, that is the principle participant in the illicit trade.
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Well technically it's not illicit as it's one sided and China doesn't have to comply with it. It also only takes a few samples to reverse engineer and it can't be prevented. It's ironic that where China was dependent on the U.S. and only seen as a place of assembly they are increasingly becoming more independent.
 
Swa said:
Well technically it's not illicit as it's one sided and China doesn't have to comply with it. It also only takes a few samples to reverse engineer and it can't be prevented. It's ironic that where China was dependent on the U.S. and only seen as a place of assembly they are increasingly becoming more independent.
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We're not talking about a CMOS from the 90s here. They're undoubtedly trying.
 
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