Nvidia (NVDA.US) plans to introduce chip “location tracking” technology to strictly prevent high-end AI chip smuggling

The Zhitong Finance App learned that, according to people familiar with the matter, Nvidia (NVDA.US) has successfully developed a location verification technology that can track the country where its chips are actually operating in real time. This move may help prevent its artificial intelligence (AI) chips from being smuggled into countries subject to export bans.

The person familiar with the matter mentioned above said that the feature was recently demonstrated internally and has not yet been officially released. It is planned to be installed by customers as a software option in the future. The technology will invoke the “confidential computing” capabilities of Nvidia's graphics processing units (GPUs) to implement positioning functions.

An Nvidia executive said that the original purpose of the software's core design is to provide customers with a tracking service for the overall computing performance of the chip — this is also a common monitoring requirement for data centers when purchasing processors on a large scale. At the same time, the software will collect communication delay data between the chip and Nvidia's official server to determine the chip location with the same accuracy as other Internet positioning services.

Nvidia stated in an official statement: “We are in the process of implementing a new software service that will help data center operators fully monitor the operating status and inventory information of all of its AI GPU clusters. This software agent independently deployed by the customer will use GPU telemetry technology to achieve integrated monitoring of cluster health, security, and inventory data.”

It is reported that this positioning verification function will be first applied to Nvidia's latest generation Blackwell chips. Compared to previous Hopper and Ampere series chips, Blackwell chips have stronger security features in the “certification” process. Nvidia executives also revealed that the company is evaluating the feasibility of adapting this technology to older chips.

If the technology is officially put into commercial use, it will respond to the demands of US members of the White House and Congress from both parties. Previously, the US side has repeatedly called for the introduction of targeted measures to strictly prevent AI chips from being smuggled into restricted countries. As the US Department of Justice recently filed a criminal lawsuit against a gang suspected of smuggling Nvidia chips worth more than 160 million US dollars, related calls are getting louder and louder.

However, the US side's requirements for chip positioning verification technology have also drawn the attention of China's cybersecurity supervisory authorities. Chinese regulators have previously interviewed Nvidia to inquire about issues such as whether its products have a “back door” and whether they may cause the US to bypass chip security protection mechanisms.

This week, this regulatory uncertainty has once again heated up. Earlier, US President Trump stated that he would allow Nvidia H200 chips to be exported to China. The chip is the previous-generation workhorse model of the current flagship Blackwell series, but foreign policy experts are skeptical about whether Chinese companies will purchase the chip.

Nvidia strongly denies that its chip has a backdoor vulnerability. Experts in the software field analyzed that there is no conflict between developing chip positioning verification technology and ensuring product safety, and Nvidia fully has the technical ability to achieve positioning functions without compromising the security performance of the chip.