Wirescreen, a business-intelligence outfit that looks into Chinese firms, says that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been actively purchasing Nvidia AI chips even after the White House applied export controls on the most powerful semiconductors. According to The New York Times, public documents reveal that the Chinese military, from 2019 until 2025, has been seeking ways to acquire Nvidia A100, A800, H100, and H800 chips — these were sometimes identified through the listed specifications, but there were also instances when they were directly named in the document.
According to NYT, of 3,800 procurement records relating to high-end chips and computing, some 500 instances were found where units of the Chinese military tried to get their hands on Nvidia hardware. The report claims "nearly every branch" of China's military, including units focused on nuclear explosive simulations, war games, and cyberattacks, was listed. In one specific instance, a cybersecurity unit sought Nvidia A100-powered AI servers for a password-cracking tool called hashcat.
