Smuggling Network Circumvents US Sanctions to Supply Nvidia AI Chips to China

A sophisticated underground market is thriving, with over 70 distributors openly advertising restricted Nvidia GPUs online.

Chinese buyers use various methods, including repurposing gaming chips and smuggling through personal contacts, to obtain Nvidia AI processors.
A Chinese student smuggled six Nvidia compute cards from Singapore, highlighting the ease with which these chips bypass airport security.
The demand for Nvidia's AI GPUs remains high in China, driven by the needs of AI startups and research institutions.
Some distributors offer entire servers with multiple Nvidia GPUs, selling for up to $300,000 per unit.
The underground market's scale is small compared to global sales but significant for China's AI development.