With Smugglers and Front Companies, China Is Skirting American A.I. Bans

The New York Times ^ | Aug. 4, 2024, 12:00 a.m. ET | Ana Swanson and Claire Fu

[E. Pluribus Unum]

In the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, a mazelike market stretches for a half-mile, packed with stalls selling every type of electronic imaginable.

It’s an open secret that vendors here are offering one of the world’s most sought-after technologies: the microchips that create artificial intelligence, which the United States is battling to keep out of Chinese hands.

One vendor said he could order the chips for delivery in two weeks. Another said companies came to the market ordering 200 or 300 chips from him at a time. A third business owner said he recently shipped a big batch of servers with more than 2,000 of the most advanced chips made by Nvidia, the U.S. tech company, from Hong Kong to mainland China. As evidence, he showed photos and a message with his supplier arranging the April delivery for $103 million.

The United States, with some success, has tried to control the export of these chips. Still, The New York Times has found an active trade in restricted A.I. technology — part of a global effort to help China circumvent U.S. restrictions amid the countries’ growing military rivalry.

The chips are an American innovation powering self-driving cars, chatbots and medical research. They have also led to rapid advances in defense technology, spurring U.S. fears that they could help China develop superior weaponry, launch cyberattacks and make faster decisions on the battlefield. Nvidia chips and other U.S. technology have aided Chinese research into nuclear weapons, torpedoes and other military applications, according to a review of previously unreported university studies.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Corporate gaslight press article presented under topic "humor" to grant it the respect it deserves.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

The Soviet Union survived because of the Black Market.

Many of those successful in the Black Market rose to power as oligarchs or their minions when the neocons "blessed" newly freed Russia with "shock therapy". All praise Uncle Milty's Law of Unintended Consequences!

Russia learned well from America's earlier attempt to turn it into a client state and has successfully evaded much of the sanctions put on them.

Who should think that the Chinese would be any less successful in evading whatever tariffs or sanctions our neocon oligarchs put up?

[RoosterRedux]

I wonder how many spies the CCP has at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing where Nvidia and AMD have their most advanced chips made?

As an aside, TSMC also manufactures most or many of China's most advance chips..

[Bookshelf]

8 American Companies That Worked with the Nazis During World War II:
Coca-Cola Company. Coca-Cola played both American and German sides during World War II, but in 1941, the German side ran out of sugary syrup to make the soft drink. ...
Kodak. The German branch of Kodak used Jewish slave labor from concentration camps but continued to produce film stock for the Axis Powers during the War.
Chase Bank. ...
Ford. ...
IBM. ...
General Electric. ...
Random House. ...
Standard Oil. ...