Nvidia is said to be experimenting with monitoring software amid ongoing speculation about chip smuggling

Nvidia Reportedly Testing Chip Location Tracking Software

Amid growing concerns about its AI chips being illegally transported into China, Nvidia is said to be experimenting with software capable of monitoring the whereabouts of its hardware.

According to a Reuters report that references unnamed insiders, Nvidia has developed a system to verify the geographic location of its chips. This technology not only monitors computing activity but also uses server communication delays to help determine where a chip is physically situated.

The tracking feature will be offered as an optional tool for customers, with initial availability planned for Nvidia's Blackwell series chips, Reuters noted.

Recently, several sources have claimed that DeepSeek, a Chinese AI company, has utilized Nvidia Blackwell chips obtained through unauthorized channels to train its AI models. Nvidia, however, has stated that it has not found any proof to support these smuggling allegations.

“We have not encountered any credible evidence or received reports of so-called ‘phantom data centers’ being set up to mislead us and our partners, then dismantled, smuggled, and reassembled elsewhere. Although such scenarios seem unlikely, we investigate every lead we get,” a company representative told TechCrunch.

This development follows closely on the heels of the U.S. government’s recent approval allowing Nvidia to sell its H200 AI chips to certain customers in China. However, this authorization applies only to the older H200 models and does not include the Blackwell chips.