Overview
- Restricted Nvidia systems are trading on China’s black market at far above legal prices, with B200 racks fetching about Rmb3–3.5 million and DGX B300 servers near Rmb8 million.
- Reporting ties at least $1 billion worth of advanced Nvidia processors to illicit shipments into China through covert channels over recent months.
- Smugglers use third‑country transit points such as Vietnam, falsified paperwork, and layered reseller networks concentrated in Guangdong and Zhejiang to move the hardware.
- Buyers span many Chinese industries seeking AI capacity, which has driven purchases of modified gaming GPUs and older datacenter cards as substitutes when top models are scarce.
- U.S. agencies have increased prosecutions and issued Commerce guidance and Chinese authorities have made arrests, but enforcement has so far not stopped flows or pushed prices down, with knock‑on effects for supply chains, investors, and China’s push for domestic chip alternatives.