AI chip smuggling crackdown: Nvidia builds location-tracking tech; ‘Monitor entire AI GPU fleet

Nvidia has developed a location verification feature for its chips, aiming to help prevent its advanced artificial intelligence processors from being smuggled into countries where exports are restricted, reported Reuters, citing people familiar with the matterThe move comes amid growing pressure in the United States to tighten oversight of high-end AI hardware.

Lawmakers and the White House have been looking for ways to halt the flow of restricted chips to China and other banned destinations, a push that intensified after the Department of Justice brought cases against groups accused of trying to move more than $160 million worth of Nvidia processors into China.The debate over tracking technology has also drawn attention in Beijing. China’s top cybersecurity regulator has questioned Nvidia about whether its products contain backdoors that could enable the US to circumvent security protections.

Nvidia has strongly rejected those claims. Software specialists have also noted that location verification can be added without weakening the security of the company’s chips.Those concerns re-emerged this week after US President Donald Trump said he would allow exports of Nvidia’s H200 processors—the immediate predecessor to its Blackwell line—to China. Some foreign policy experts expressed doubts about whether China would allow local buyers to acquire the chips.

Nvidia’s location feature, which has been shown privately but is not yet publicly released, would come as an optional software update. Sources said it uses the confidential computing capabilities built into Nvidia’s GPUs. The tool was originally created to help data center operators monitor chip performance, a routine task, and would estimate a chip’s location by measuring communication delays between the device and Nvidia-run servers."We're in the process of implementing a new software service that empowers data center operators to monitor the health and inventory of their entire AI GPU fleet," Nvidia said in a statement. "This customer-installed software agent leverages GPU telemetry to monitor fleet health, integrity and inventory."The feature will debut on Nvidia’s latest Blackwell chips, which have stronger attestation capabilities than earlier Hopper and Ampere generations. The company is also exploring ways to offer the update for those prior generations, an Nvidia official said.