A HOT POTATO: A new report claims that China's military has spent years trying to obtain, and in some cases succeeded in buying, Nvidia AI chips, including models restricted by US export controls. The findings are another black eye for Washington's attempts to stop American hardware from helping Beijing's military modernization, and to Nvidia's repeated argument that China does not need its products.
According to The New York Times, business-intelligence firm Wirescreen reviewed public Chinese procurement documents and found repeated efforts by units tied to the People's Liberation Army to buy Nvidia hardware.
The review covered around 3,800 records related to high-end chips and computing, with about 500 instances in which Chinese military units sought Nvidia products between 2019 and 2025.
The chips reportedly included the A100, A800, H100, and H800, sometimes named directly and sometimes identifiable through listed specifications. Records included nearly every branch of the Chinese military, including groups working on nuclear explosive simulations, war games, cyber operations, and weapons research. One cybersecurity unit sought A100 servers for use with Hashcat.
The findings do not prove every attempted purchase succeeded, but John Costello, the Wirescreen analyst who wrote the report, said the data showed "directly and irrefutably" that US technology was equipping the Chinese military.
