Chinese entrepreneur boasts receipt of 200 NVIDIA H200 GPUs in Beijing despite US export ban

A recent video posted by Beijing-based entrepreneur Su Di (苏菂) on the Chinese social media platform Douyin has sparked significant discussion. In the video, Su boasts about his access to Nvidia’s H100 and H200 GPUs, despite extensive efforts by US authorities to prevent the export of Nvidia’s most advanced generative AI chips to China. Su Di, co-founder of Beijing-based startup incubator Kun Lun Nest (昆仑巢), posted the video on 28 November, showcasing the Nvidia H100 GPU. He referred to the H100 as a crucial piece of hardware driving the recent AI boom, highlighting its technological breakthroughs and immense computational power. In the video, Su emphasised that the H100's capabilities are several times more powerful than the RTX 4090, a high-performance consumer GPU. Su pointed out that despite the widespread use of the H100, the US government has imposed an export ban on this product, preventing it from being sold to China. In another video, he revealed that 200 units of the H200 had just arrived at his office, and he was about to unbox them. According to Datacrunch, both H100 and H200 are powerful GPUs designed for high-performance computing and AI workloads. The H100, featuring enhanced Tensor Cores and support for FP8 precision, delivers up to 3.95 petaflops of processing power. The H200 is a newer model with similar capabilities but offers additional optimisations for large-scale AI tasks. The H100 is priced around $40,000 USD for its high-end configurations, and the H200’s price is expected to be higher due to its newer, advanced features.

"Trump would probably be furious about this"

Su also addressed concerns raised by viewers about the legality of possessing such products, admitting that it violates US laws, particularly in light of the ongoing US sanctions on Chinese technology. However, he humorously noted that the incoming US President Trump "would likely be furious about it." He defended the person responsible for acquiring and shipping these GPUs to China, stating that his friend has been operating on a large scale for two years, despite being blacklisted by the US twice. Su Di proudly stated that this individual has "played a key role in advancing China’s AI capabilities" by providing essential hardware for large AI model computations. He also pointed out that while the US and China are the largest global markets for this technology, US sanctions have unintentionally pushed China to rapidly develop its own chip industry.

Su justify GPU import as China trying to catch up on computational development gap

In a third video, Su continued to justify the shipment of GPUs to China despite the ban, dismissing accusations from netizens who labelled it "smuggling." "You know, how many chips are legally declared, taxed, and imported into China through customs each year? All products that appear in China’s market are legally declared and taxed," Su argued. "So why do Chinese customs allow these products to pass through? Because they comply with Chinese laws—they are normal goods," he justified. Su further referenced the 2024 Geneva Convention, claiming that the US ban on China violates international law by restricting high-tech products and attempting to suppress China’s CPU development, thus hindering the country’s progress. In response to questions about why China wouldn’t simply use domestically produced chips, Su first emphasised the importance of computational power for a country’s international competitiveness. He justified that China is trying to catch up, but there are still gaps in many products. "When it comes to space and military applications, all of them rely on enormous computational power. So if the US hadn’t imposed sanctions on our CPU development, shouldn’t we be using the best CPUs to advance our national development?" "If domestic CPUs and GPUs were available, we would definitely prioritise them. But in reality, we have to accept the current gap," Su concluded.

U.S. tightens export controls on advanced GPUs to China amid rising national security concerns

Since at least 2018, the United States has sought to restrict the export of advanced semiconductor technologies, particularly GPUs, to China. This effort stems from national security concerns, with the U.S. aiming to prevent China from acquiring cutting-edge technology for military and AI development. Over the years, these export controls have intensified, with the U.S. government targeting high-performance chips like Nvidia's A100 and H100, which are crucial for AI and supercomputing. The restrictions culminated in 2023 with immediate bans on shipping certain GPUs to China, reflecting ongoing tensions over technological supremacy.