AI chipmaker Nvidia said its chips do not contain backdoors that would allow remote access or control, after the company was interviewed by China’s cyberspace regulator over security concerns.

Chinese regulators are focusing on Nvidia’s H20, which was designed for the Chinese market in compliance with earlier US export controls.

The chip was banned for export in April, but sales are now expected to resume.

Backdoor concern

“Cybersecurity is critically important to us. Nvidia does not have ‘backdoors’ in our chips that would give anyone a remote way to access or control them,” Nvidia said in a statement.

The People’s Daily newspaper, the official journal of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, on Friday published an editorial titled “How can we trust you, Nvidia?” that urged the company to “comply with requests and provide convincing proof of security” to regain the trust of Chinese customers.

“Guarding network security is as important as protecting national territory,” the article said, adding that China should not use “sick chips”.

It cited examples of cyberattacks and satellite failures in Russia and disruption at airlines and pharmacies in the country as examples of how cyber-warfare poses a serious threat.

The situation demonstrates how Nvidia continues to be caught in a pressurised situation as it seeks to retain its position as the dominant provider of AI chips in China, while also pleasing a White House administration that has heavily focused on forceful trade negotiation tactics.

Remote controls

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), which regulates computer security, said on Thursday it had summoned and interviewed Nvidia officials regarding the risks of potential tracking and remote-control functions in H20 chips.

The regulator said it requested Nvidia to provide explanations and relevant proof around those issues.

The CAC said that in order to “safeguard the network and data security of Chinese users” it had asked Nvidia to “explain the backdoor security risks associated with its H20 computing chips sold to China and to submit supporting evidence”.

The agency noted that US lawmakers had asked for mandatory tracking features to be added to advanced AI chips, and said American experts had noted the existence of mature “tracking and positioning” and “remote shutdown” technologies in AI chips.

In May, US lawmakers introduced the US Chips Security Act that would require Nvidia and other AI chipmakers to build security and location verification technologies into their chips.

Democratic Representative Bill Foster, who was one of the co-leads of the bill in the House, and independent technical experts told Reuters in May that the technology to track chips was readily available, and much of it was already built into Nvidia’s chips.

Retaliation

In May 2022, the CAC banned US memory chipmaker Micron from critical Chinese infrastructure following a security review that it said found Micron’s products posed a “major security risk”, in a move that was widely seen as retaliation for ongoing US export restrictions.

In December of last year, China’s antitrust regulator opened an investigation into Nvidia over its $7 billion (£5.3bn) 2019 acquisition of Mellanox, a week after the US introduced a round of export controls aiming to restrict the development of China’s chip industry.