Chinese university tied to PLA bought Nvidia H200 chips despite US blacklist

A Chinese university with ties to the People's Liberation Army purchased Nvidia's H200 AI chips last month despite being on a US export blacklist, according to procurement records, highlighting gaps in Washington's efforts to curb China's access to advanced technology. Northwestern Polytechnical University, added to the US Entity List in 2001, bought two H200 chips for $123,000 through domestic supplier Shaanxi Bosuan Network Technology, not directly from Nvidia. The university also secured five contracts this year for rented computing capacity using H200 and other restricted Nvidia processors. The purchases come as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang faces congressional scrutiny over his lobbying for looser AI chip export restrictions. Three Republican committee chairmen have requested a briefing with Huang on November 18 regarding his reported contacts with an alleged Chinese intelligence operative.