Nvidia Denies Backdoor Claims as China Raises Security Concerns

Nvidia chips do not have backdoors or ways to grant remote access, the U.S tech giant has reported, following the request by Beijing to present its officials with some so-called severe security problems.

The California-based Corporation is also the global leader in the manufacturing of AI semiconductors, and this month became the first company to reach a $4 trillion market value. However, it has got caught between trade restrictions between China and the United States and Washington can de facto limit what Nvidia can ship to China under national security concerns.

One of the reasons is the Chinese availability of the "H20": a weaker variant of the Nvidia AI processing units that the company has created with the express purpose of selling in China.

Key Highlights

• Nvidia denies chip backdoors amid China’s cybersecurity probe.
• H20 AI chip returns to China market after U.S. export approval.
• China pushes Huawei 910C as it seeks tech self-reliance.

"Cybersecurity is critically important to us. Nvidia does not have 'backdoors' in our chips that would give anyone a remote way to access or control them," Nvidia said in a statement.

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Nvidia announced this month that it will restart selling H20 to China when US officials promised to lift the licensing restrictions that stalled its deliveries.

However, there are still challenges in the way of the tech giant. Designed to mandate Nvidia and other makers of the powerful AI chips to have built-in location tracking capabilities, U.S. politicians have laid out plans to achieve this.

Beijing internet regulator said on Thursday, it had called representatives of Nvidia to explain about the very severe security holes that they had learned about H20.

China also wants to reducing reliance on foreign technology and is trying to popularize the indigenously produced chip set, 910C manufactured by Huawei as an alternative to the H20, according to Jost Wubbeke, Sinolytics consultancy.

Additional barriers on the work of Nvidia in China include a sluttering economy, ridden with a property sector crisis in the country that has lasted years, as well as an increase in trade headwinds under the U.S. President Donald Trump.

The chief executive officer Jensen Huang told a gathering in Beijing on his first visit to the city this month that the firm was determined to continue in the service of local customers, stating that he had been assured when he talked strategy with top Chinese officials that China was open and stable.

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"From that perspective, the U.S. decision to allow renewed exports of the H20 to China could be seen as counterproductive, as it might tempt Chinese hyperscalers to revert to the H20, potentially undermining momentum behind the 910C and other domestic alternatives," he said.