Investigations have provided evidence that China-based organizations could still get their hands on sanctioned Nvidia GPUs as recently as Feb 28, 2024. According to Reuters, Chinese universities and research institutes may have sidestepped the sanctions on the most powerful GPUs by buying servers packing these powerful accelerators. However, an Nvidia spokesperson indicated that the products sold were likely to include stocks that had been previously exported to resellers in China.
Tender documents uncovered by Reuters reveal that ten Chinese entities acquired advanced Nvidia chips between Nov 20, 2023, and Feb 28, 2024, by simply ordering servers equipped with them. It is noted that Dell, Gigabyte, and Supermicro server products (including the sanctioned Nvidia GPUs) were sold in China after the Nov 17 expanded embargo, raising questions about sanctions-swerving. Remember, this sanctions policy adjustment even encompassed Nvidia GPUs like the GeForce RTX 4090 consumer graphics card.
