Overview

• Financial Times reports that at least $1 billion worth of Nvidia’s advanced AI processors were smuggled into China in the three months after April’s export ban.
• The illicit stockpile comprises high-end B200, H100 and H200 processors alongside GB200 AI server systems traded on Chinese black-market platforms.
• Grey-market networks routed shipments through Singapore, Thailand and Chinese provinces such as Guangdong, Zhejiang and Anhui.
• Nvidia warns that data centres built with these unauthorized components suffer technical and financial inefficiencies due to lack of official support.
• The U.S. Commerce Department could impose fresh export controls by September to curb the illicit flow of U.S. AI chips through regional transit points.