Antonio Bordunovi
China is said to have urged local companies to avoid using Nvidia’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) H20 processors, particularly for government-related purposes.
Over the past few weeks, Chinese authorities have sent notices to a range of firms discouraging the use of the less-advanced semiconductors, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The guidance was particularly strong against the use of H20s for any government or national security-related work by state enterprises or private companies, the people said.
Developed for the Chinese market after U.S. export restrictions on advanced AI chips in late 2023, the H20 was initially banned by the Trump administration in April amid rising trade tensions, but the ban was lifted in July.
Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) earlier this week pushed back against claims from Chinese state media that its H20 artificial intelligence chips pose a national security threat.
In a statement to Seeking Alpha, a Nvidia spokesperson has said, “Cybersecurity is critically important to us. NVIDIA does not have ‘backdoors’ in our chips that would give anyone a remote way to access or control them.”
The company also rejected similar “kill switch” claims last week.