"Banned Nvidia Chips Available in China’s Underground Markets"

 From Reuters via Asia Financial, June 20:

Shops in Shenzhen’s famous electronics market are selling high-end Nvidia chips, but the costs are huge and the numbers appear to be limited

US export restrictions on high-end computer chips have created an underground market in China in which vendors are charging huge mark-ups for top-end Nvidia AI chips.

At the Huaqiangbei electronics area in the southern tech hub of Shenzhen, shops in the SEG Plaza skyscraper cater for camera parts to drones, and chips can also be quietly sourced.

Two vendors, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they could provide small numbers of A100 artificial intelligence chips made by Nvidia, the US chip designer, at $20,000 a piece – double the usual price.

While buying or selling high-end US chips is not illegal in China, US export restrictions have created a de facto underground market, but vendors are keen not to draw scrutiny from either US or Chinese authorities....

....MUCH MORE

Related, January 30:
Nvidia, China's choice for doing nuclear weapons research (NVDA)

Hmmm, not the best marketing tagline I've ever come up with. Maybe a little alliteration?

"China's Chip Choice, NVDA"

Ummm, never mind. 

China has had serious problems manufacturing state-of-the-art chips, in spite of billions of dollars thrown into the attempt. Now Japan the U.S. and probably most importantly the Netherlands (ASML, ~100% market share in EUV lithography) are about to further tighten the restrictions on chip tech.

 

I'm guessing that China's recent mooting of export controls on solar wafers (97% market share), black silicon and silicon casting equipment for solar cells is related to the chip story.

For what it's worth it is probably easier to smuggle GPU chips than photolithography systems....