Beijing Summons Nvidia Over Alleged ‘Serious Security’ Risks in Chips

The Chinese authorities on July 31 summoned Nvidia over alleged “serious security issues” in the company’s artificial intelligence chips, according to the regime’s cyberspace regulator.

In an online statement, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said it had requested Nvidia to explain the “security risks linked to back doors” in the company’s H20 chips sold in China and to provide supporting materials.

The CAC didn’t specify whether any experts or tests had identified back door security threats in Nvidia’s chips or what these potential risks might be. Nor did it mention what actions the regime might take as a result of this move.

A spokesperson for Nvidia denied that the company had installed back doors in its products.

“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’s spokesperson told The Epoch Times via email.

In mid-July, the U.S. chipmaking giant said it had received Washington’s assurance that the sale of H20 AI chips to China would be approved. The company previously halted the H20 chips’ exports to comply with the Trump administration’s export controls.

The H20 chip was specifically developed for the Chinese market, reflecting efforts to align with U.S. policy aimed at denying the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) access to top-tier AI chips.

Despite being less powerful than the company’s flagship processors, the H20 has still been adopted by domestic tech giants such as ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent. It was also credited with the launch of DeepSeek, China’s most advanced large language model and a leading competitor of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

In the July 31 statement, the CAC expressed concerns over Chinese users’ data and privacy, citing calls by U.S. lawmakers for foreign-sold advanced chips to be equipped with location tracking functions. The notice mentioned that “American AI experts had revealed that Nvidia’s computing chips pose advanced technologies for ‘tracking and positioning’ and ‘remote shutdown.’”

The CAC’s move came just 10 days after the country’s spy agency cautioned against the use of chips and smart devices made by foreign companies.

China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), the country’s top intelligence agency, said such imported devices may contain “back doors” to allow foreign actors to access sensitive information, according to a July 21 post on its official WeChat account. It urged citizens to stay vigilant and companies handling sensitive information to switch to equipment designed and produced by domestic chipmakers.

Amid tensions with the West, the CCP has stepped up scrutiny over foreign businesses in the name of state security, fueling concerns among investors and business executives.

In May 2023, China barred operators of critical infrastructure in the country from purchasing products from Micron. The CAC said at the time that the U.S. chipmaker failed its security review, without elaborating on what risks it had found.

The ban drew condemnation from Washington. The White House called it retaliation over a G7 statement condemning the CCP’s aggression in the South China Sea and human rights violations in Tibet and Xinjiang.

Nvidia currently faces another anti-monopoly probe in China, which was launched by the regime’s State Administration for Market Regulation in December 2024, shortly after Washington expanded rules to block the CCP from accessing advanced semiconductor technology.

Bill Pan contributed to this report.