Nvidia cannot supply its high-end products without an export license from the U.S. Department of Commerce H100 and the latest H200 Provides GPUs to Chinese entities. This license is difficult to grant, at least for hundreds of such GPUs. However, these GPUs appear to be available in China, with one alleged businessman boasting that he smuggled two dozen H200-based Supermicro servers with hundreds of H200 GPUs inside.
The unidentified businessman allegedly obtained up to 25 Supermicro servers, each equipped with 8 Nvidia H200 GPUs, for a total of 200 Hopper GPUs. 200 H200 GPUs are not enough to train complex large language models, but they are enough for various research institutions to conduct research and develop software at startups. Companies could start developing projects on smuggled H200 hardware and then run them in remote cloud data centers, again violating U.S. sanctions against China.
Due to high demand, the Nvidia H200 GPU with 141GB HBM3 memory is difficult to obtain. For example, hard-to-obtain H200 servers are available from several American companies. However, availability was expected to be four to six weeks, and pricing was never announced. Ordering a baseboard with eight H200 GPUs in Europe costs $273,000 (excluding VAT). A fully equipped H200 server can cost more than $300,000.
A Chinese businessman shows off his new NVIDIA GPU, even under a U.S. ban. pic.twitter.com/ADLfM8l7YIDecember 10, 2024
Even as the United States restricts Chinese entities’ access to advanced data center artificial intelligence and HPC processors, a network of buyers, sellers, and couriers is circumventing export controls on Nvidia GPUs. As of August this year, there are more than 70 dealers These restricted processors are openly available for sale online, with many offering standalone GPUs and even servers within weeks.
Nvidia offers H100 and H200 processors from the following companies DellHPE and Supermicro, which manufacture and sell artificial intelligence servers. These companies may order excess processors, which may end up in unofficial pipelines. While all companies claim to comply with U.S. export controls and address illegal activity when discovered, their sales to small dealers can escape regulation and end up in smuggling networks.
Even without complex networks, it would be relatively easy to smuggle a Nintendo Switch-sized processor from Singapore or South Korea to China. Another thing is to ship a server weighing dozens of kilograms to the People’s Republic of China. However, the smuggled batch of 8-way Nvidia H200 machines showed a perfectly functioning distribution system.
Since we are dealing with ultra-micro machines, we can only conclude that even in the U.S. government Start investigating Super Micro Due to alleged violations of sanctions against China and Russia, the company’s AI and HPC servers based on restricted Nvidia processors continue to be shipped to China in large quantities, likely through various middlemen who are willing to supply the vast majority of customers with resources that cannot be legally supplied. Profit from the hardware of most countries.