China bought Nvidia chips despite US ban: Reuters

The news: Chinese government and military organisations bought small numbers of Nvidia semiconductors during the past year, despite export bans introduced by the US, Reuters reported.

The numbers: Publicly available tender documents show that dozens of Chinese entities purchased Nvidia semiconductors, including the US firm's A100, H100, A800 and H800 chips which are subject to US export bans. Prior to the bans, Nvidia held a 90% share of China's AI chip market.

The context: The suppliers of the chips, which are widely considered far superior to rival products for AI work due to their processing capacity, included neither Nvidia or Nvidia-approved retailers, but came from widely unknown Chinese organisations. Buying or selling US chips is not illegal in China, making it more difficult for the US to cut off China's supply to Nvidia's products.