Nvidia H20 chip Photo: VCG

China's cyberspace regulator summoned US tech giant Nvidia over security risks concerning its H20 artificial intelligence (AI) chips sold to China in accordance with relevant laws on Thursday, according to a statement released on the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC)'s official WeChat account.

Nvidia was asked to provide explanations and submit relevant evidence to address security risks associated with vulnerabilities and potential backdoors in its H20 computing chips, which are designed specifically by the company for the Chinese market.

The latest measure is aimed at safeguarding the cybersecurity and data security of Chinese users, in accordance with relevant provisions of the Cybersecurity Law, the Data Security Law and the Personal Information Protection Law, said the CAC.

Recently, Nvidia's AI chips have been alleged to pose serious security risks, and some US lawmakers have called for advanced chips that are exported to be equipped with "tracking and positioning" functions.

Comments by AI experts in the US disclosed that the "tracking and positioning" and "remote shutdown" technologies of Nvidia chips have matured, the CAC said in the statement.

He Yadong, a spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce, said on Thursday that there was no information available from the ministry on the matter, when asked whether the move would affect the overall atmosphere of China-US trade talks.

In May, Republican US Senator Tom Cotton and a bipartisan group of eight members of the House of Representatives introduced the US Chip Security Act, which would require semiconductor companies like Nvidia to include security mechanisms and location verification in their advanced AI chips, according to CNBC.

The technology to track chips after they are sold is readily available, with much of it already built in to Nvidia's chips, Democrat Bill Foster, who was one of the co-leads of the bill in the House, and independent technical experts told Reuters in May.

"Information and data security are increasingly vital to national security, and with foreign experts confirming H20's security risks, the Chinese government's focus on this issue and its engagement with Nvidia are entirely justified and necessary steps," Xiang Ligang, a Chinese telecom industry expert, told the Global Times on Thursday.

Xiang said that the chip could be remotely controlled, allowing the supplier to shut it down or reduce its performance at critical moments, potentially disrupting normal operations.

"Given that AI chips are primarily used for high-performance inference tasks, this raises concerns about their reliability and stability," Xiang said.

Deploying these chips in networked computing centers risks covertly transferring algorithms and methods abroad, Xiang added. "While the sheer volume of data makes full-scale transmission unlikely, the leakage of core technical paths remains a concern."

In April this year, the US banned the sale of H20 chips to China on "national security" grounds.

Just two weeks ago, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang visited China and announced that the company had obtained US approval to resume exporting H20 chips to Chinese customers. The company will begin shipments soon, Huang said.

In response to strong demand from China, Nvidia placed orders for 300,000 H20 chipsets with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, the world's leading contract chip manufacturer, according to a Reuters report this week.

Analyst said the resumption of Nvidia H20 sales in the Chinese market has been met with added uncertainty and complications, following the summons to the company.

The US government has long imposed heavy-handed interventions on its tech companies, actions that not only increase risks and uncertainty for Chinese users, but also undermine the autonomy of US firms and hinder the growth of those that rely on the Chinese market, Xiang said.