{"id":370499,"date":"2026-03-28T23:07:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T23:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/370499\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T23:07:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T23:07:20","slug":"chinese-universities-performing-military-research-acquired-super-micro-servers-with-sanctioned-nvidia-ai-chips-public-documents-reveal-purchases-were-completed-in-2025-and-2026-despite-us-ex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/370499\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese universities performing military research acquired Super Micro servers with sanctioned Nvidia AI chips \u2014 public documents reveal purchases were completed in 2025 and 2026 despite US export controls"},"content":{"rendered":"

Public documents reveal that four Chinese universities, two of which are known for conducting military research for the People\u2019s Liberation Army, bought AI servers containing export-controlled Nvidia chips from Super Micro Computer. According to Reuters<\/a>, the Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), which focuses on missile, satellite, and robotics technologies, bought a system from Super Micro in July 2025 that contained eight Nvidia A100 AI GPUs.<\/p>\n

Beihang University, which also conducts aerospace and defense research, is said to have acquired a machine-learning workstation from the company just this March, configured with four Nvidia A100 chips. These two universities are part of the \u201cSeven Sons of National Defense,\u201d a designation for Chinese academic institutions with deep ties to China\u2019s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the People\u2019s Republic of China’s defense industry.<\/p>\n

Go deeper with TH Premium: AI and data centers<\/p>\n

\n

\"Microsoft\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Microsoft)<\/p>\n

Nvidia\u2019s A100 chips are less powerful than H200 AI GPUs, which U.S. President Donald Trump has finally allowed for export to China<\/a> in late 2025. However, potential buyers still need to acquire export licenses from the federal government before they can get their hands on these chips, and it\u2019s unlikely that PLA-linked institutions will ever get approval.<\/p>\n

Article continues below <\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear how the universities were able to purchase these Super Micro servers. However, three individuals, including Super Micro co-founder Yi-Shyan \u201cWally\u201d Liaw, were recently arrested for smuggling $2.5 billion worth of advanced AI servers into China<\/a>. The conspirators allegedly shipped orders from resellers and shell companies located in different countries in Southeast Asia. Once the servers containing the controlled AI GPUs arrived at the local warehouse, their serial numbers were transferred to dummy servers, and they were then issued new fake documentation. Once completed, they were forwarded to their final destination in China.<\/p>\n

News like this has several American lawmakers on edge, with U.S. Senators Jim Banks (R-Ind.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) writing a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick urging him to suspend the issuance of export licenses to China and its intermediaries<\/a> until the issue has been resolved. It would be a blow to Nvidia if the administration grants the request, especially as the company has finally received Chinese orders for its H200 chips<\/a> after several months of uncertainty<\/a> from Beijing.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

\"Google\n<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Follow Tom’s Hardware on Google News<\/a>, or add us as a preferred source<\/a>, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.<\/p>\n

Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Public documents reveal that four Chinese universities, two of which are known for conducting military research for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[220,218,219,61,60,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-370499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}