Military-linked Chinese university bought Nvidia chips despite U.S. blacklist: Reuters exclusive

Summary

• Northwestern Polytechnical University, a Chinese institution on the U.S. Entity List with ties to the People's Liberation Army, purchased two Nvidia H200 AI chips for 874,700 yuan via a domestic supplier last month.
• The university also secured five contracts this year to rent computing capacity containing H200, A100, & A800 chips through Chinese companies, despite export bans on these processors.
• U.S. lawmakers & committee chairmen are scrutinizing Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang over alleged contacts with a Chinese intelligence operative & his lobbying for relaxed chip sales restrictions.
• H200 chips require U.S. export license approvals that are typically denied for blacklisted entities like Northwestern Polytechnical, which was added to the Entity List in 2001 over missile proliferation concerns.
• A Reuters review of 26 procurement records found multiple Chinese universities, including Shenzhen University & Beihang University, buying or renting restricted Nvidia chips such as H100, H800, & A800 through domestic suppliers.
• These purchases highlight gaps in U.S. export controls as Chinese institutions bypass restrictions by sourcing chips through third-party resellers or renting server access rather than direct imports.
• U.S. policy updates in January allowed case-by-case H200 exports to China but maintained separate prohibitions against sales to Entity List organizations & military end-users.