Key facts
- Northwestern Polytechnical bought two H200 chips for 874,700 yuan ($123,000) from Shaanxi Bosuan Network Technology, per an October 21 record.
- The university's cybersecurity school awarded two seven-month contracts in January for servers with eight H200 chips each, worth 441,700 yuan and 441,000 yuan.
- The university also rented servers containing eight A100 and eight A800 chips, which are banned from export to all Chinese entities.
- A Reuters review of 26 Chinese procurement and corporate records found universities and research institutions obtaining restricted Nvidia chips or rented access.
- Shenzhen University bought three H100 processors for 769,800 yuan in September, per the records.
- Northwestern Polytechnical, Nvidia and the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security did not respond to requests for comment.
Northwestern Polytechnical University, a member of China's "Seven Sons of National Defense" group of defense-focused universities, bought two Nvidia H200 AI chips in October for 874,700 yuan ($123,000), according to an October 21 procurement record on its website. The chips were purchased for its management school from Shaanxi Bosuan Network Technology rather than directly from Nvidia, the record shows. Reuters is reporting the purchases and computing contracts for the first time.
The H200 is among Nvidia's most capable chips for training and running advanced AI systems and is subject to US export license approvals, which are normally denied for blacklisted institutions such as Northwestern Polytechnical. The university, Nvidia and the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security did not respond to requests for comment. Reuters could not determine contact details for Shaanxi Bosuan Network Technology.
Based in the northwestern city of Xian, Northwestern Polytechnical conducts research related to military aircraft, missiles and satellites. The Commerce Department added the university to its Entity List in 2001 over alleged involvement in missile-proliferation activities and military research, and tightened restrictions in 2019, making licenses subject to a policy of denial in most circumstances.
Beyond the outright purchase, procurement records show the university's cybersecurity school awarded two seven-month contracts in January for access to servers containing eight H200 chips each. The contracts, worth 441,700 yuan and 441,000 yuan, covered fine-tuning AI models and reinforcement-learning training. It also rented access to servers containing eight Nvidia A100 chips and eight A800 chips. The A100 and A800 are banned from export to all Chinese entities.
A Reuters review of 26 Chinese procurement and corporate records from 2026 found universities and research institutions buying US-restricted Nvidia chips or renting access to Nvidia-powered computing services through domestic suppliers. Several had close links to China's defense industry or military research. The universities named in the records did not respond to requests for comment.
Shenzhen University bought three H100 processors for 769,800 yuan in September, the records show. Wuhan University of Technology bought a server containing an H100 chip for 355,000 yuan in June and four A100 chips in a separate 344,000 yuan purchase. Beihang University, another of the Seven Sons of National Defense, bought four A800 processors for 489,000 yuan in April.
The Trump administration began allowing some H200 exports to China on a case-by-case basis in January, but that policy did not lift the separate restrictions applying to Entity List organizations. The January licensing rules also require safeguards to prevent blacklisted entities and military end-users from remotely accessing chips exported under the policy.
The findings come as Nvidia and CEO Jensen Huang face scrutiny in Washington over his lobbying for looser restrictions on AI chip sales to China. Three Republican congressional committee chairmen have requested a briefing with Huang on November 18 over his reported contacts with an alleged Chinese intelligence operative.