Northwestern Polytechnical University, a Chinese institution on the U.S. Entity List, bought two Nvidia H200 AI chips last month for 874,700 yuan ($123,000), according to an October 21 procurement record posted on the university’s website. The record shows the chips were purchased for the university’s management school from Shaanxi Bosuan Network Technology rather than directly from Nvidia.
The university is a member of the “Seven Sons of National Defense” group of Chinese universities under U.S. sanctions and has a history of defence-related research. The U.S. Commerce Department added Northwestern Polytechnical to the Entity List in 2001 over alleged involvement in missile-proliferation activities and military research and tightened restrictions in 2019, making licences for controlled U.S. technology subject to a policy of denial in most circumstances.
Nvidia H200 access and domestic procurement
The H200 is among Nvidia’s most capable chips for training and running advanced AI systems and is subject to U.S. export licence approvals, which are normally denied for blacklisted institutions such as Northwestern Polytechnical. Procurement records show the university also acquired access this year to H200 chips and other high-end Nvidia processors through five contracts renting computing capacity from Chinese firms.
In January the university’s cybersecurity school awarded two seven-month contracts for access to servers that contained eight H200 chips each, with contract values of 441,700 yuan and 441,000 yuan, for fine-tuning AI models and reinforcement-learning training. Records also show rentals of servers containing eight A100 chips and eight A800 chips. The A100 and A800 are banned from export to all Chinese entities.
In April, a university institute bought computing services requiring at least 24 A100 chips in a 375,000 yuan contract for structural and fluid-dynamics simulations. The procurement records provide little information about where the processors originated or where the rented servers were located; under Chinese law public procurement agencies must verify suppliers can fulfil orders before announcing winners and signing contracts.
A review of 26 Chinese procurement and corporate records from this year found multiple universities and research institutions buying U.S.-restricted Nvidia chips or renting access to Nvidia-powered computing services from domestic suppliers, several with close links to China’s defence industry or military research. Examples in the records include Shenzhen University buying three H100 processors for 769,800 yuan in September; Wuhan University of Technology buying a server containing an H100 chip for 355,000 yuan in June and four A100 chips in a separate 344,000 yuan purchase; and Beihang University buying four A800 processors for 489,000 yuan in April.
Two government procurement announcements in July and September named suppliers selected to provide computing services using Nvidia H800 and A800 chips to the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, with one listing H800 access at 10 yuan per chip-hour. A January procurement award named a supplier of six A100 chips worth 484,800 yuan for a Shenzhen-based public institution.
The procurement records illustrate how institutions with military ties can obtain U.S. AI computing power through domestic suppliers, either by buying chips outright or by renting access to servers that contain them. Small quantities of H200 chips have reached China through indirect routes while Beijing withheld approval for large-scale imports.
The findings come as Nvidia and its CEO Jensen Huang face scrutiny in Washington over his lobbying for looser restrictions on sales of AI chips to China, following reports he was targeted by an alleged Chinese spying operation. Some U.S. lawmakers say access to Nvidia’s most powerful AI chips can accelerate China’s development of AI systems for weapons design, intelligence analysis and military modernisation. Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress have urged stronger controls, including chip-tracking requirements and greater congressional oversight of exports. Three Republican congressional committee chairmen have requested a briefing with Huang on November 18 over his reported contacts with an alleged Chinese intelligence operative.
Nvidia, Northwestern Polytechnical University and the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security did not respond to requests for comment. Contact details for Shaanxi Bosuan Network Technology could not be determined from the procurement records.
