As the US and China look for any sort of leverage in a prolonged trade fight, Beijing sees an opportunity to win over the world by taking a stand against the Trump administration’s plans to track high-end chips.
Chinese internet regulators last week summoned Nvidia staff over alleged security risks with its less-advanced H20 chips. The action, citing calls from US lawmakers to build tracking features into the most powerful semiconductors, has yet to lead to any type of formal ban or restrictions.
Either way, analysts see the move as not so much about the H20s, which Chinese state-backed entities have publicly employed for some time, but rather an easy way for Beijing to send a series of messages about the US plans: Domestic firms should be cautious, the world should be wary and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang should influence the White House to shift course.
“The recent summons of Nvidia serves as a warning for Nvidia’s future products rather than a sign that the Chinese government found any loophole in H20,” said George Chen, partner and co-chair of digital practice at The Asia Group, which was co-founded by former US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell. “China wants to use the Nvidia case to show China is a buyer, but it won’t be a blind buyer.”
For now, the spat looks unlikely to blow up the wider US-China relationship. Beijing said the two sides agreed to maintain a tariff truce after talks last month in Stockholm, while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent later said it’s up to US President Donald Trump to make that call.
“We’re getting very close to a deal,” Trump said in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday. “We’re getting along with China very well.”
Michael Kratsios, one of the architects of a White House action plan on AI that calls for exploring chip-tracking technologies, told Bloomberg Television on Tuesday that officials are discussing the use of software or physical changes to better track restricted chips. He added that he’s not had conversations “personally” with either Nvidia or Advanced Micro Devices Inc. about exploring location-tracking technology.
Nvidia on Tuesday declared its opposition to any sort of backdoors, saying they enable hackers and undermine trust in US technology.
“There are no back doors in Nvidia chips. No kill switches. No spyware,” Nvidia said in a blog post. “That’s not how trustworthy systems are built — and never will be.”
The Chinese Cyberspace Administration’s action suggests Beijing is drawing a broad line against any surveillance capabilities in American semiconductors, a position that may resonate around the globe, even with US allies. Trump’s first administration warned governments to avoid using equipment from Huawei Technologies Co. over risks that China could use it for spying.
“We started attacking Huawei because of the idea that there are secret backdoors in it, and now here the US is openly suggesting we should legally mandate backdoors in hardware that we sell. It’s a huge deal,” said Tom Nunlist, associate director at the Beijing-based consultancy Trivium. “What government would accept this?”
The H20s have become a focal point in the broader debate over US export controls on China after American officials claimed that they allowed Beijing access to the chips as part of earlier trade talks in London.
Trump’s move to lift an earlier ban on their exports generated criticism from more hawkish lawmakers, who argue that the chips, while a diminished version of years-old Nvidia technology, will help China compete in AI. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick defended the decision, saying the US wanted to “sell the Chinese enough that their developers get addicted to the American technology stack.”
China’s Commerce Ministry disputed the US version of events in a statement last month, saying the US “proactively” approved the sale of H20 chips and suggesting they weren’t part of any wider tradeoff in return for rare-earth magnets. China views the H20s as on par with domestic offerings, even though it could still use them because local companies can’t churn out enough AI chips to meet demand.
“Yes, China does want the H20,” said Ray Wang, a Washington-based research director focusing on semiconductors at The Futurum Group, citing significant purchases by leading tech companies such as ByteDance Ltd., Tencent Holdings Ltd. and DeepSeek before the US cut off access to the chips in mid-April. “They clearly prefer to have access to the H20.”
The Chinese Commerce Ministry didn’t respond to faxed questions.
Chinese state media has turned up the scrutiny on imported chips, with a commentary in the ruling Communist Party’s flagship mouthpiece People’s Daily calling devices with location tracking “infected.” A Sunday editorial by China Daily dismissed the H20 as “castrated” and offered a different reason for the US policy reversal.
“It is China’s breakthroughs in producing its own AI chips that has prompted the US to lift its curbs on the exports of H20 chips just three months after they were banned,” the newspaper said.
Shares in Chinese chipmakers including Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. and Cambricon Technologies Corp. rose immediately after Beijing disclosed the meeting with Nvidia employees, as investors bet on homegrown alternatives.
“It’s a straightforward option for China to now put Nvidia on the negotiation table, either to trade for more supply security promises or to further push domestic substitution,” said Tilly Zhang, a technology analyst with Gavekal Dragonomics. “Either way, it wouldn’t be a loss from Beijing’s point of view.”
While the two sides reached a truce that allowed the US to access rare-earth magnets, which are needed to make high-tech goods including smartphones and missiles, a final deal has yet to be worked out. In an interview aired over the weekend, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said both sides are “about halfway there” on easing China’s export controls on rare earths.
The desire for the chip-tracking technology stems from the US struggle to enforce export controls around the world. A proposed Chip Security Act, introduced to the House of Representatives in May, would require location-verification mechanisms on more advanced chips like Nvidia’s H100 and B200, but not the H20.
One possible method is “delay-based” location verification, which measures the time it takes for a signal to travel from trusted servers to target equipment to determine its location, according to analysis by Bloomberg Intelligence.
Whether the US will press ahead with new mandates on chips remains an open question. Trump’s desire for a deal with China means further curbs on chips are unlikely before the expected summit this fall, according to Chris Miller, professor of international history at Tufts University and author of Chip War.
“The administration has many priorities and it’s hard to see which is going to win out,” he said. “It’s very clear that the White House is going to try to balance the hawks’ desire for restrictions with the broader US-China relationship.”
Chinese internet regulators last week summoned Nvidia staff over alleged security risks with its less-advanced H20 chips. The action, citing calls from US lawmakers to build tracking features into the most powerful semiconductors, has yet to lead to any type of formal ban or restrictions.
Either way, analysts see the move as not so much about the H20s, which Chinese state-backed entities have publicly employed for some time, but rather an easy way for Beijing to send a series of messages about the US plans: Domestic firms should be cautious, the world should be wary and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang should influence the White House to shift course.
“The recent summons of Nvidia serves as a warning for Nvidia’s future products rather than a sign that the Chinese government found any loophole in H20,” said George Chen, partner and co-chair of digital practice at The Asia Group, which was co-founded by former US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell. “China wants to use the Nvidia case to show China is a buyer, but it won’t be a blind buyer.”
For now, the spat looks unlikely to blow up the wider US-China relationship. Beijing said the two sides agreed to maintain a tariff truce after talks last month in Stockholm, while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent later said it’s up to US President Donald Trump to make that call.
“We’re getting very close to a deal,” Trump said in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday. “We’re getting along with China very well.”
Michael Kratsios, one of the architects of a White House action plan on AI that calls for exploring chip-tracking technologies, told Bloomberg Television on Tuesday that officials are discussing the use of software or physical changes to better track restricted chips. He added that he’s not had conversations “personally” with either Nvidia or Advanced Micro Devices Inc. about exploring location-tracking technology.
Nvidia on Tuesday declared its opposition to any sort of backdoors, saying they enable hackers and undermine trust in US technology.
“There are no back doors in Nvidia chips. No kill switches. No spyware,” Nvidia said in a blog post. “That’s not how trustworthy systems are built — and never will be.”
The Chinese Cyberspace Administration’s action suggests Beijing is drawing a broad line against any surveillance capabilities in American semiconductors, a position that may resonate around the globe, even with US allies. Trump’s first administration warned governments to avoid using equipment from Huawei Technologies Co. over risks that China could use it for spying.
“We started attacking Huawei because of the idea that there are secret backdoors in it, and now here the US is openly suggesting we should legally mandate backdoors in hardware that we sell. It’s a huge deal,” said Tom Nunlist, associate director at the Beijing-based consultancy Trivium. “What government would accept this?”
The H20s have become a focal point in the broader debate over US export controls on China after American officials claimed that they allowed Beijing access to the chips as part of earlier trade talks in London.
Trump’s move to lift an earlier ban on their exports generated criticism from more hawkish lawmakers, who argue that the chips, while a diminished version of years-old Nvidia technology, will help China compete in AI. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick defended the decision, saying the US wanted to “sell the Chinese enough that their developers get addicted to the American technology stack.”
China’s Commerce Ministry disputed the US version of events in a statement last month, saying the US “proactively” approved the sale of H20 chips and suggesting they weren’t part of any wider tradeoff in return for rare-earth magnets. China views the H20s as on par with domestic offerings, even though it could still use them because local companies can’t churn out enough AI chips to meet demand.
“Yes, China does want the H20,” said Ray Wang, a Washington-based research director focusing on semiconductors at The Futurum Group, citing significant purchases by leading tech companies such as ByteDance Ltd., Tencent Holdings Ltd. and DeepSeek before the US cut off access to the chips in mid-April. “They clearly prefer to have access to the H20.”
The Chinese Commerce Ministry didn’t respond to faxed questions.
Chinese state media has turned up the scrutiny on imported chips, with a commentary in the ruling Communist Party’s flagship mouthpiece People’s Daily calling devices with location tracking “infected.” A Sunday editorial by China Daily dismissed the H20 as “castrated” and offered a different reason for the US policy reversal.
“It is China’s breakthroughs in producing its own AI chips that has prompted the US to lift its curbs on the exports of H20 chips just three months after they were banned,” the newspaper said.
Shares in Chinese chipmakers including Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. and Cambricon Technologies Corp. rose immediately after Beijing disclosed the meeting with Nvidia employees, as investors bet on homegrown alternatives.
“It’s a straightforward option for China to now put Nvidia on the negotiation table, either to trade for more supply security promises or to further push domestic substitution,” said Tilly Zhang, a technology analyst with Gavekal Dragonomics. “Either way, it wouldn’t be a loss from Beijing’s point of view.”
While the two sides reached a truce that allowed the US to access rare-earth magnets, which are needed to make high-tech goods including smartphones and missiles, a final deal has yet to be worked out. In an interview aired over the weekend, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said both sides are “about halfway there” on easing China’s export controls on rare earths.
The desire for the chip-tracking technology stems from the US struggle to enforce export controls around the world. A proposed Chip Security Act, introduced to the House of Representatives in May, would require location-verification mechanisms on more advanced chips like Nvidia’s H100 and B200, but not the H20.
One possible method is “delay-based” location verification, which measures the time it takes for a signal to travel from trusted servers to target equipment to determine its location, according to analysis by Bloomberg Intelligence.
Whether the US will press ahead with new mandates on chips remains an open question. Trump’s desire for a deal with China means further curbs on chips are unlikely before the expected summit this fall, according to Chris Miller, professor of international history at Tufts University and author of Chip War.
“The administration has many priorities and it’s hard to see which is going to win out,” he said. “It’s very clear that the White House is going to try to balance the hawks’ desire for restrictions with the broader US-China relationship.”
