China Bans US AI Chips in Data Centers
Mandate Aims to Reduce U.S. Dependence as AI Competition Intensifies
As the U.S. has stated it will not supply NVIDIA’s latest AI chips to China in the future, Beijing has imposed a ban on the use of American AI chips in its domestic AI data centers. Analysts suggest this marks a signal that China, which has relied on NVIDIA’s GPUs, is effectively declaring a move away from U.S. dependence and igniting the AI hegemony competition.
Reuters reported on the 5th (local time) that the Chinese government announced guidelines mandating the use of only domestically produced AI chips in new AI data centers funded by state resources. It added that data centers with a completion rate below 30% since construction began have been instructed to replace U.S.-made AI chips with Chinese ones. This effectively signals the expulsion of U.S. AI chips from Chinese data centers.
AI chips include GPUs and AI accelerators connected to high-bandwidth memory (HBM). NVIDIA dominates over 90% of the global market. The U.S. has restricted NVIDIA to exporting only low-performance AI chips to China. The tech industry views Beijing’s mandatory use of domestic AI chips as a display of confidence that high-performance AI can be developed without NVIDIA’s technology. Some analysts argue it is a retaliatory card to pressure the U.S. to ease export restrictions.
Meanwhile, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, stated at an AI event in London on the same day,
China will surpass the U.S. in the AI race.
He assessed that the current gap in AI technology between the two nations is “a mere split second,” nearly caught up.
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China Bans US AI Chips in Data Centers, source
