China increases restrictions on importing cutting-edge processors, particularly from Nvidia

The Financial Times (FT) said Friday that China has strengthened its import restrictions on cutting-edge chips as part of Beijing’s attempts to persuade the nation’s largest IT firms to cease acquiring artificial intelligence (AI) processors from the US-based Nvidia.

The publication claims that in recent weeks, groups of customs officers have been sent to important Chinese ports to «carry out strict controls» on shipments of semiconductors.

In order to maintain Jensen Huang’s market dominance in China and comply with US export regulations, the inspections started with the intention of making sure local businesses stopped buying Nvidia chips made in China, such as the H20 and RTX Pro 6000D.

To further combat the smuggling of high-end chips that violate Washington’s export prohibitions, the regulations were recently expanded to include all advanced semiconductor devices, according to a source that the FT cited.