China bars entry of about 600,000 Nvidia chips stuck in Hong Kong
Beijing is weighing self-sufficiency against its own tech firms' heavy demand for compute, which has driven a shortage and a rise in chip imports.
Summary
China is barring the entry of roughly 600,000 advanced Nvidia chips that are stuck in Hong Kong on their way to the mainland, Reuters reported.
Beijing is concerned that Chinese companies are too reliant on Western technology, Reuters reported. The move sets that concern against the needs of China's own tech firms, whose demand for compute, the processing power used to train and run AI models, has caused a shortage and pushed them to increase imports.
Shipments of advanced chips to China are regularly caught between Washington and Beijing, which are each trying to deny the other a technological edge in AI. China has been working to build up its own semiconductor industry, but domestic supply has not kept pace with demand.
Nvidia is also under growing scrutiny in Washington. Three House Republican committee chairs asked Jensen Huang, Nvidia's chief executive, to brief Congress behind closed doors about his reported ties to a woman accused of spying for China, Axios reported on Thursday. The New York Times reported the previous week that Huang had a close relationship with an executive whom US officials determined was passing information to Chinese intelligence.
The US has restricted exports of Nvidia's most advanced chips to China since 2022. Nvidia shares fell more than 9% on Thursday as investors sold off companies tied to the AI buildout, CNBC reported.