NVIDIA Testing Tracking Software Amid Rumors of Chip Smuggling

Reports indicate that NVIDIA is testing a new software tool designed to track the geographic location of its AI chips, amid growing concerns over alleged smuggling of these chips into China.

According to Reuters, citing anonymous sources, NVIDIA has developed a location verification technology capable of identifying the country where a chip is operating. The system works by analyzing computational performance metrics and measuring communication latency between servers, which can provide clues about the chip's physical location.

Reuters noted that this tracking software will be optional and initially rolled out for NVIDIA’s Blackwell-series chips.

In recent days, multiple reports have surfaced claiming that China’s DeepSeek AI model was trained using smuggled NVIDIA Blackwell chips. NVIDIA responded by stating it has not found any evidence to substantiate these smuggling allegations.

“We have seen no evidence or received any leads regarding so-called ‘ghost data centers’—facilities allegedly built to deceive NVIDIA and our OEM partners before being dismantled, smuggled, and reassembled elsewhere. While such scenarios sound far-fetched, we will investigate any credible tip we receive,” an NVIDIA spokesperson told TechCrunch.

Just days earlier, NVIDIA received U.S. government approval to begin selling its H200 AI chips to pre-approved Chinese customers. However, this authorization applies only to the older H200 chips and does not extend to the newer Blackwell series.