Chinese State Media Urges Companies to Avoid Buying Nvidia H20 Chips

Aug 13, 2025 - 09:52

Updated: 9 months ago

Chinese State Media Urges Companies to Avoid Buying Nvidia H20 Chips

A Chinese state-affiliated social media account on Aug. 10 urged companies to avoid buying Nvidia’s H20 graphics processing units, or GPUs, over an alleged backdoor feature embedded in those chips.

Yuyuan Tantian, an account affiliated with Chinese state broadcaster CCTV and China Media Group, stated on the microblogging platform Weibo that H20 chips have a backdoor feature that could enable “remote shutdown,” a feature that could allow Nvidia to remotely access and disable the chips.

It also alleged the chips have a “license locking” function that could render them invalid if any violations by the user were detected, as well as a “tracking and positioning” feature that could enable active queries and limit a targeted chip’s operation to a certain area.

The account, which had previously appeared on China’s Defense Ministry website, advised Chinese companies not to buy Nvidia’s H20 chips, claiming they are “not safe for China.”

“When a chip is neither environmentally friendly nor advanced, let alone safe, as consumers, we can certainly choose not to buy it,” it stated.

Responding to a media inquiry, an Nvidia spokesperson denied claims that its chips have backdoors.

“Cybersecurity is critically important to us,” the spokesperson said in a statement to The Epoch Times. “NVIDIA does not have ‘backdoors’ in our chips that would give anyone a remote way to access or control them.”

This was the third time in a month that Nvidia refuted China’s allegations about a backdoor feature.

On July 23, the Trump administration recommended strengthening export controls to verify the location of advanced AI chips, as part of wider efforts to ensure they do not find their way into the hands of foreign adversaries such as China.

The White House revealed the recommendations in “America’s AI Action Plan.” It recommended that the Department of Commerce (DOC), the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the National Security Council, in collaboration with industry, explore “leveraging new and existing location verification features on advanced AI compute to ensure that the chips are not in countries of concern.”

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said in a post on X at the time, "I’m pleased to see President Trump’s plan endorse strong and creative controls on AI-enabling technologies, including location verification. This is a key provision in my bipartisan, bicameral Chip Security Act and it will help ensure our advanced chips do not end up in China.”

On July 31, China’s cybersecurity regulator summoned Nvidia to address alleged “security risks linked to back doors” in its H20 chips sold in the country and asked it to submit supporting materials, citing calls by U.S. lawmakers for advanced chips exported from the United States to be equipped with location tracking functions.

The regulator also alleged that American AI experts had revealed that Nvidia’s computing chips contain advanced technologies for location tracking and remote shutdown. Nvidia has denied the claims.

Following that, the Chinese Communist Party’s official newspaper, People’s Daily, published a commentary titled “Nvidia, How Can I Trust You?” questioning Nvidia’s response after being summoned by the cybersecurity watchdog.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivers the keynote address during the Nvidia GTC 2025 in San Jose, California, on March 18, 2025. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The piece called Nvidia’s response inadequate and urged the U.S. tech giant to provide security evidence to prove the safety of its H20 chips.

Nvidia Chief Security Officer David Reber Jr. responded in an Aug. 5 blog post, saying that the company’s chips have no “kill switches” or backdoors.

Reber emphasized that embedding such features violates “the fundamental principles of cybersecurity” and could be exploited by hackers.

“There is no such thing as a ‘good’ secret backdoor — only dangerous vulnerabilities that need to be eliminated,” he stated, adding that Nvidia chips are designed to leave no single-point vulnerability that can be exploited to shut down a system.

Reber added that embedding backdoors in Nvidia chips would harm U.S. economic and national security interests.

“Hardwiring a kill switch into a chip is something entirely different: a permanent flaw beyond user control, and an open invitation for disaster,” he stated.

Nvidia had explicitly designed the H20 articifical intelligence chips to comply with the previous administration’s restrictions on the export of advanced and high-performance AI chips to China.

The company said in July that the U.S. government had assured the tech giant that it would approve the tech giant’s license application to resume H20 chip sales to China, though it did not provide any specific timeline.

According to Nvidia, the company was ordered to halt H20 chip sales in April, when the United States and China were engaging in an intense exchange of tariffs and trade restrictions.

They have since reached a preliminary agreement to pause trade measures, allowing the United States to permit the resumption of Nvidia chip exports and China to restart rare-earth magnet shipments.

Bill Pan contributed to this report.