China is taking aim at Nvidia with a new investigation, according to a report by The New York Times: Nvidia bought networking equipment manufacturer Mellanox Technologies in 2020 with China’s approval, but the country now seems to believe that Nvidia may have violated the terms of the deal.
The move appears to be an escalation in tensions between China and the US over trade, particularly in relation to high-end technology. That explains why Nvidia, which makes the GPUs that power AI for the world’s biggest tech companies, is suddenly finding itself caught up in China’s crosshairs. And it’s worth noting that the US has recently made it harder for Nvidia (and other US-based companies) to supply the latest tech to China.
Unfortunately, China’s investigations into US tech companies are nothing new. It has taken aim at Micron and Qualcomm. Qualcomm ended up paying a nearly $1 billion fine as a result. As sanctions against China have prevented it from acquiring advanced technology, China has increased its production of older tech hardware, which could make it a bigger player in global supply chains. While that’s not ideal, preventing China from getting advanced tech that it can turn to military applications seems to be the bigger priority at the moment.
Meta Llama AI
Credit: Meta
China is clearly looking for ways to bolster its military capabilities with outside tech, including tech from the US. A report last month pointed to Chinese research facilities putting a version of Meta’s Llama AI to work for military use. According to the report, the ChatBIT AI can be used for answering questions to help Chinese military leaders make decisions. That’s a violation of Meta’s terms for Llama.
Given China’s obvious interest in AI for military use, it’s not surprising that the US is moving to keep the most powerful AI hardware away from it. Preventing China from eventually building powerful AI tech could be impossible, though. Efforts by the US and other countries to stop China may do little more than delay it. A report earlier this year suggested that China may be only a few years away from catching up to the US in AI capabilities, though that assessment should be taken with a big grain of salt. And Taiwan’s tech minister recently made comments indicating that by 2025, chipmaker TSMC will be about 10 years ahead of China’s own semiconductor fabs for processors.