Blacklisted Chinese University Can Access Advanced Nvidia Chips

Amid Washington’s close scrutiny of Nvidia and its chief executive, Jensen Huang, who was reportedly targeted in a Chinese espionage operation, Chinese universities affiliated with the military are still said to be able to access advanced US Nvidia technology.

Although the US president once described Huang as “a man determined to lay the foundations for artificial intelligence and willing to put the US at the forefront of the competition”, he has actively lobbied Washington to continue chip sales to China. He argues that doing so would keep China’s AI ecosystem tied to the US while holding back competition from Chinese chipmakers developing semiconductors.

Some US lawmakers, however, say access to Nvidia’s most advanced AI chips could accelerate the development of AI systems for weapons design, intelligence analysis and military modernisation.

Democratic and Republican lawmakers have urged tighter controls on China’s access to advanced AI chips, including chip-tracking requirements and stricter export procedures. Three Republican committee chairs have requested a meeting with Huang on 18 November, following reports that he had been in contact with someone suspected of being a Chinese intelligence agent.

China’s Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) reportedly bought two H200 chips last month for US$123,000 (2.2 billion rupiah), according to a procurement notice published on its website on 21 October.

The university is one of the “Seven Sons of National Defence”, a group of seven institutions closely linked to China’s defence and military industries. It is also on the US export blacklist.

NPU bought the chips from Shaanxi Bosuan Network Technology, rather than directly from Nvidia. The H200 is one of Nvidia’s most capable chips for training and running advanced artificial intelligence (AI) systems.

NPU has also obtained access to H200 chips and other advanced Nvidia AI processors through five computing-capacity rental contracts with Chinese companies.

Reuters, which first reported the chip purchase and computing contracts, said it had tried to contact Northwestern Polytechnical University, Nvidia and the Bureau of Industry and Security, which oversees export controls, but received no response. Reuters said it could not verify details of the contract involving Shaanxi Bosuan Network Technology.

On the US export blacklist

Based in the city of Xi’an, Northwestern Polytechnical University frequently conducts research on military aircraft, missiles and satellites.

The US Department of Commerce added the university to its trade blacklist, or Entity List, in 2001 over suspected involvement in missile proliferation and military research. The restrictions were tightened in 2019, and export licences for US technology to the university are generally denied.

NPU’s purchases illustrate how Chinese institutions with military links continue to obtain US AI computing power through domestic suppliers, either by buying chips directly or renting access to servers that use them.

This year, Reuters reviewed 26 Chinese procurement and corporate records. It found that universities and research institutions had bought US-restricted Nvidia chips or rented access to them through domestic suppliers with close ties to China’s defence industry.

The universities named in the records did not comment on Reuters’ findings.

Nvidia chips for military research

US President Donald Trump’s administration began allowing some H200 exports to China on a case-by-case basis in January 2026. The policy did not remove restrictions applying to entities on the export blacklist.

Rules issued in January also required a series of safeguards to prevent blacklisted entities and military end users from remotely accessing H200 processors or less advanced models.

In addition to NPU’s direct purchase, procurement records show that the university’s cybersecurity school awarded two seven-month contracts, beginning in January, for access to servers each containing eight H200 chips. The contracts, worth 441,700 yuan (1.202 billion rupiah) and 441,000 yuan (1.2 billion rupiah), covered AI model customisation and reinforcement training.

The university also rented access to servers containing eight Nvidia A100 chips and eight A800 chips. Exports of the A100 and A800 to Chinese entities are prohibited, although these models are less advanced than the latest H200.

In April, an institution at another university bought computing services requiring at least 24 A100 chips under a contract worth 375,000 yuan (1 billion rupiah) for structural and fluid-dynamics simulations.

The procurement contracts were awarded to several little-known Chinese technology suppliers. The records provided little information about the processors’ origin or where the servers were operated.

Under China’s Government Procurement Law, public purchasing bodies must verify that suppliers can fulfil an order before announcing a tender winner and signing a contract.

A broad market for US-restricted Nvidia chips

The procurement notices point to a sizeable market for hard-to-obtain Nvidia AI chips, as well as a broad market for computing services at Chinese universities.

Shenzhen University bought three H100 processors, a high-end Nvidia AI chip banned by the US, for 769,800 yuan (2 billion rupiah) in September 2026.

Wuhan University of Technology bought a server equipped with an H100 chip for 355,000 yuan (965 million rupiah) in June, and separately purchased four A100 chips for 344,000 yuan (936 million rupiah).

Beihang University, also one of China’s seven universities with military links, bought four A800 processors for 489,000 yuan (1.33 billion rupiah) in April 2026. Beihang has close ties to China’s aerospace and defence industries and frequently conducts research for military aviation and space programmes.

Two government procurement notices in July and September 2026 named successful bidders that would provide computing services using Nvidia H800 and A800 chips to the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS). One supplier listed a rate of 10 yuan (27,000 rupiah) per hour of H800 use.

A separate procurement contract in January 2026 said a Shenzhen-based public institution would supply six A100 chips worth 484,800 yuan.

Reuters previously reported that Chinese institutions obtained restricted Nvidia chips installed in servers made by Super Micro Computer, Dell and Gigabyte through domestic retailers. It has also documented a Chinese black market for Nvidia chips sourced from overseas inventories and third-country intermediaries.

Last week, Reuters reported that a small number of H200 chips had entered China by indirect routes while Beijing continued to delay approval for large-scale imports.