Northwestern Polytechnical University purchased two advanced Nvidia H200 chips in October, circumventing United States export restrictions through a domestic network distributor.
Procurement Records Reveal Blacklisted Purchases
The university acquired the processors for 874,700 yuan on October 21 through Shaanxi Bosuan Network Technology rather than dealing directly with the manufacturer, according to procurement records reported by bangkokbiznews. Northwestern Polytechnical University belongs to China’s “Seven Sons” group of institutions, which conduct military-linked research and remain subject to United States trade sanctions.
United States authorities placed the university on the Commerce Department Entity List in 2001 due to concerns over missile proliferation activities and military research. Restrictions were tightened further in 2019 to block export license approvals for sensitive technology. H200 processors represent some of the most advanced hardware available for training and operating high-end artificial intelligence systems.
University Rents High-Performance Processors from Chinese Firms
Beyond direct purchases, the university secured access to high-performance processors through contracts with domestic firms this year. Matichon Online noted that the university secured access to H200 and other high-performance AI processors through contracts to rent computing power from five Chinese companies. Procurement records show the university used servers with eight H200 chips each for model tuning and reinforcement learning, with values of 441,700 and 441,000 yuan.
While the United States government began permitting case-by-case shipments of H200 hardware under specific export rules, the policy maintains strict prohibitions against supplying entities on the Entity List. Reports indicate that NVIDIA H200 chips remain in warehouses in Hong Kong to await delivery to mainland China because Beijing has not approved large-scale imports.
