Blacklisted Chinese University Bought Nvidia H200 Chips Despite US Ban, Reuters Finds
A Chinese university with deep ties to the People’s Liberation Army bought two of Nvidia’s most powerful artificial intelligence chips last month, even though it has spent more than two decades on a United States trade blacklist, according to a Reuters investigation published on 11 November.
Northwestern Polytechnical University, based in Xi’an, paid 874,700 yuan — about $123,000 — for two Nvidia H200 processors, procurement records show. The purchase was made through a Chinese supplier rather than directly from Nvidia, and the case is, in Reuters’ words, “highlighting gaps in Washington’s efforts to curb China’s access to advanced technology.”
The university belongs to China’s “Seven Sons of National Defense”, a group of institutions closely linked to the country’s defence sector, and conducts research related to military aircraft, missiles and satellites. The US Commerce Department added it to its Entity List in 2001 over alleged involvement in missile proliferation and military research. Exports of controlled American technology to the university are normally subject to a policy of denial.
A $123,000 purchase through a domestic supplier
The central transaction was recorded in a procurement notice dated 21 October 2026 on the university’s website. According to Reuters, the university’s management school bought the two H200 processors from Shaanxi Bosuan Network Technology, a Chinese company, rather than from Nvidia itself.
The H200 is among Nvidia’s most capable chips for training and running advanced AI systems, and exports of the processor to China require US government licence approval. Licences for blacklisted institutions such as Northwestern Polytechnical are generally denied.
A separate procurement notice dated 4 September 2026 lists two more H200 cards bought by the university’s cybersecurity school for 796,000 yuan. Reuters said it was reporting the purchases and related computing contracts for the first time.
Rental contracts widened the access
Buying the chips outright was not the university’s only route to advanced computing power. Its cybersecurity school awarded two seven-month contracts in January for access to servers containing eight H200 processors each, rented from Chinese companies.
Reuters reviewed 26 Chinese procurement and corporate records from this year and found a wider pattern: universities and research institutions buying US-restricted Nvidia chips, or renting access to computing services powered by them, through domestic suppliers.
The records also show Shenzhen University buying three H100 processors for 769,800 yuan in September 2026, and Beihang University buying four A800 processors for 489,000 yuan in April 2026.
Why the sale should have been blocked
The rules, on paper, are clear. Northwestern Polytechnical has been on the Entity List since 14 May 2001, and since 20 September 2016 a licence has been required to export, re-export or transfer any item subject to US export regulations to the university. Restrictions were tightened further in 2019, making licences subject to a presumption of denial in most cases.
A rule change on 15 January 2026 did move some H200 exports to China from a presumption of denial to case-by-case review. But that change applied to ordinary end users, not to institutions on the Entity List, whose separate restrictions remained in force. The university’s blacklisted status was therefore no technicality: the sale should not have been possible under the rules as written.
The gap appears to lie in enforcement rather than in the law. Because the chips were bought through a domestic Chinese supplier, the transaction did not pass through Nvidia or any American exporter that would have needed to seek a licence. Reuters said it could not determine where the processors originally came from, and there is no established evidence that Nvidia knowingly supplied the university or that these particular chips were used for military purposes.
A wider pattern, and questions for Washington
The case is the second in days to raise questions about how Washington polices its own chip controls. A separate investigation found another approved H200 buyer operating from an empty Beijing office, suggesting that checks on end users are thin even before the hardware changes hands.
Nvidia’s chips are also at the centre of South Korea’s sovereign AI push, showing how widely the same hardware is sought. Nvidia is separately facing a shareholder lawsuit over alleged links to a suspected Chinese spy, adding to the scrutiny of its business in China.
Nvidia, Northwestern Polytechnical University and the US Bureau of Industry and Security, which administers the export controls, did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
The Commerce Department has not said whether it will investigate the sale or tighten the rules on domestic resales and rented computing access. Until it does, the case stands as evidence that a blacklist written in Washington can still be sidestepped by a purchase order written in Xi’an.
