CHINA RECEIVES $1B+ IN NVIDIA AI CHIPS DESPITE EXPORT BAN – BLACK MARKET THRIVING
Despite tightened U.S. export controls under Trump and Biden, over $1 billion worth of Nvidia’s banned B200 AI chips still flowed into China in just 3 months, Financial Times reports.
These high-performance chips, essential for training AI models used by OpenAI, Meta, and Google, have become prized assets on China’s black market. Once export restrictions hit, provinces like Guangdong and Zhejiang saw bulk arrivals of B200, H200, and even H100 chips, resold via shell distributors like Gate of the Era—a newly founded company that’s now responsible for over $400 million in rack sales alone.
Each rack holds 8 B200s and sells for up to $489,000—a 50% markup vs. U.S. prices.
👉 Gate of the Era is owned by China Century, a Shanghai firm tied to cloud giants like AliCloud and Baidu Cloud (though some logos vanished after FT inquiries).
Nvidia claims no evidence of chip diversion, but industry insiders point fingers at Supermicro, a U.S.-based system assembler, as the original source.
🔒 While U.S. rules prohibit unauthorized exports, Chinese law allows resales if tariffs are paid—exposing a major loophole Washington can’t seem to close.
This escalating AI chip race signals not just a supply chain breach—but a high-stakes battle over technological supremacy.