32 Nvidia Chips Banned From Sale to China Found on China Telecom Network

Israeli security company Lava has announced that it detected 32 B300 chips on the network of Chinese state-owned telecommunications operator China Telecom. These are powerful artificial intelligence chips called Nvidia Blackwell Ultra B300. US export rules prohibit the sale of these products to China. It is still unclear how the chips reached the country and the operator’s servers.

Nvidia sells these chips only to approved buyers that pledge not to provide them to sanctioned parties. Last year, it emerged that Chinese companies had smuggled $1 billion (approximately 1.7 billion manats) worth of artificial intelligence chips into the country in just 3 months. At the time, the B200 was the most sought-after model. Some sellers were already preparing to supply B300 chips. Nvidia did not deny the latest discovery but said such cases account for less than 0.5% of products subject to US export controls.

Lava found the chips using the Nvidia DCGM Exporter software. Data centers use this software to monitor server status and operating speed. Although the tool was developed for internal use, it is sometimes left accessible from outside and does not even require a password. Lava was unable to confirm which part of the China Telecom network contained the chips. Although Nvidia previously announced that it was developing a separate tool to determine the location of chips, the software has not yet been released.

The Blackwell Ultra B300 was unveiled in March 2025 and is considered one of the most powerful graphics processors for data centers. Compared with the B200, it has 50% more memory and computing power in FP4 format. FP4 is a low-precision computing format used to accelerate artificial intelligence computations with fewer resources. Initial deliveries were expected to begin by the end of the year. The chip soon also became sought after on the illegal sales market.

In August this year, 9 people were charged in Taiwan over the illegal export of B300 chips to China. A few days ago, Supermicro confirmed that it had fired some employees following an investigation. The scheme made use of Flying Tiget Tech, a Taiwanese server seller authorized to purchase graphics processors. The price of 5-year-old A100 servers tripled due to high demand. As a result, the price reached $82,000 (approximately 139,400 manats). The restrictions have also prompted some companies to adapt graphics processors designed for gaming to artificial intelligence tasks.