Nvidia and AMD are no longer allowed to supply certain AI GPUs to China

Nvidia has been banned from supplying certain AI GPUs to Chinese companies by the US government. According to the US government, the GPUs could be used for military purposes. Competitor AMD has received a similar ban.

Nvidia shared the news a letter to the US stock market watchdog SEC. It reads that on August 26, the chip company was banned by the US government from exporting the A100 and H100 data center GPUs to China and Russia. These GPUs are aimed at data centers and HPC and are intended for high performance computing, artificial intelligence and other data center applications.

The letter states that the US government suspects that the GPUs can be used for military purposes in China and Russia. According to Nvidia, the ban could hinder the further development of the H100 GPU.

Chip company AMD was also banned by the US government. As a result, the US company is no longer allowed to sell MI250 accelerators to Chinese or Russian customers. AMD tells Reuters that the ban does not, however, constitute an obstacle to the further development of AMD products.

The US government suggested to the Reuters editors that it is taking additional steps around the country’s policy on technology and its potential end-uses. The Chinese Foreign Ministry accuses the United States of a “technological blockade”, according to Reuters.

Nvidia H100