NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang spoke to the media at a hotel in Beijing, China on July 16, 2025.
Alessandro Diviggiano | Reuters
Nvidia China’s data center allegations dismissed Tuesday GPUs AI Includes a hardware feature that can remotely deactivate the chip, which is often called a “kill switch”.
“The NVIDIA GPU doesn’t have, and shouldn’t have, kill switches and backdoors,” Nvidia’s chief security officer David Reber wrote in a blog post on Tuesday.
this Blog Posts The China Cyberspace Administration said last week that it needed NVIDIA to provide documents on the so-called security vulnerabilities in the H20, and NVIDIA’s data center AI chips are used in the Chinese market. According to the “backdoor” security risks specifically mentioned by regulators The New York Times.
This statement is an example of how Nvidia navigates Geopolitics As its AI chip conflict remains high demand from countries and companies around the world. US lawmakers have Proposed legislation This will require an AI chip equipped with a location tracking system according to export regulations.
Due to national security reasons, the U.S. has placed export control on some NVIDIA chips, saying the country can use these chips to gain an advantage on artificial intelligence or military purposes.
NVIDIA CEO Jansen Huang It was once believed that if Nvidia’s chips become the global standard for AI computers, especially among Chinese developers, it would be better for the United States.
While the company doesn’t usually explicitly break its revenue, the H20 quarterly sales revenue was billions of dollars. The chip was briefly banned from exporting to China in April.
The company said its guidance will increase by about $8 billion in addition to the latest sales volume Export restrictions On the H20 chips combined in China.
Trump administration said in July Give exemption Chips are restored to sales.
Silicon Valley technicians and security experts often believe that when devices have hidden features, governments or attackers can secretly get data from computers or otherwise control them, it is untenable in the product.
appleIn particular, the government’s demands have been publicly fought for.back door“The same was true in the past.
Nvidia declined to comment further on its blog post.
Reber argued in a blog post that secret backdoors are dangerous vulnerabilities that hackers are not only available to officials, but that they “violate the basic principles of cybersecurity.”
He also said that if the kill switches or backdoors were to be placed in products like Nvidia GPUs, they would harm U.S. national security interests.
“Incorporating the kill switch into the chip is completely different: a permanent flaw beyond user control, and an open invitation to disaster,” Reber wrote. “It’s like buying a car that keeps the parking brake at a dealership – just in case they decide they shouldn’t drive.”
