The state media of China has coordinated an assault on the H20 artificial intelligence chips produced by Nvidia and with a great level of concerns about their safety and security to the Chinese consumers. The growing defamation across the Beijing-affiliated publications is a big step in the already existing technology war between the United States and China and threatens to hail down the Nvidia multi-billion Chinese market revenue. With Chinese regulators potentially threatening to bar Chinese firms buying the chip citing backdoor weaknesses and environmental hazards, the semiconductor giant stands at its greatest challenge as it continues to have one of the heaviest markets.
State Media Security Allegations
Nvidia’sย NVDA.Oย H20 chips pose security concerns for China, a social media account affiliated with China’s state media said on Sunday, after Beijing raised concerns over backdoor access in those chips.
The H20 chips are also not technologically advanced or environmentally friendly, the account, Yuyuan Tantian, which is affiliated with state broadcaster CCTV, said in an article published on WeChat.
“When a type of chip is neither environmentally friendly, nor advanced, nor safe, as consumers, we certainly have the option not to buy it,” the article concluded.
H20 artificial intelligence chips were developed by Nvidia for the Chinese market after the U.S. imposed export restrictions on advanced AI chips in late 2023. The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump banned their sales in April amid escalating trade tensions with China, butย reversedย the ban in July.
Government Investigation and Response
China’s cyberspace watchdog said on July 31 that it hadย summonedย Nvidia to a meeting, asking the U.S. chipmaker to explain whether its H20 chips had any backdoor security risks – a hidden method of bypassing normal authentication or security controls.
Nvidia later said its products had no “backdoors” that would allow remote access or control.ย The company reiterated its position on Sunday when asked for a comment on Yuyuan Tantian’s article, saying its chips had no backdoors.
When it comes to the timing of the security allegations, it is strategically timed to when US-China trade talks may take place once again and when Nvidia recently agreed that it would share 15 percent of its Chinese chips sales with the Trump administration. Chinese authorities are using cybersecurity issues as a hefty means of pressuring the American technology firms, which is a strategy that has worked well in past trade expulsions. This orchestrated media outreach indicates Beijing is anticipating the possible prohibition or extreme limitations of the market access of Nvidia with references to the violations of national security akin to those used by the United States to target Chinese technology companies.
Technical Concerns and Market Impact
In its article, Yuyuan Tantian said Nvidia chips could achieve functions including “remote shutdown” through a hardware “backdoor.”
Yuyuan Tantian’s comment followed criticism against Nvidia by People’s Daily, another Chinese state media outlet.
In a commentary earlier this month, People’s Dailyย saidย Nvidia must produce “convincing security proofs” to eliminate Chinese users’ worries over security risks in its chips and regain market trust.
The coordinated attack of China on H20 chips made by Nvidia will be a perilous new front in the US-China war of technology when cybersecurity accusations are turned into a tool to use in trade disputes. With one of its major customers and sources of revenue in doubt of the security and trust of American semiconductors, Nvidia could not be more in touch with the reality of its access to the Chinese market relying more and more on political paramountcy and less and less on technological success. The resolution of this debate will most probably go on to decide whether global technology markets could sustain their interdependence or risk division into rival national environments, with large-scale consequences in terms of innovation and economic prosperity on a worldwide basis.
GCN.com/Reuters.