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At least $1 billion worth of Nvidia’s advanced artificial intelligence processors were shipped to China in the three months after Donald Trump tightened chip export controls, exposing the limits of Washington’s efforts to restrain Beijing’s high-tech ambitions.

A Financial Times analysis of dozens of sales contracts, company filings, and multiple people with direct knowledge of the deals reveals that Nvidia’s B200 has become the most sought-after—and widely available—chip in a rampant Chinese black market for American semiconductors.

The processor is widely used by US powerhouses such as OpenAI, Google, and Meta to train their latest AI systems, but banned for sale to China.

In May, multiple Chinese distributors started selling B200s to suppliers of data centers that serve Chinese AI groups, according to documents reviewed by the FT. This was shortly after the Trump administration moved to prevent sales of the H20—a less-powerful Nvidia chip tailored to comply with Joe Biden-era curbs.

It is legal to receive and sell restricted Nvidia chips in China, as long as relevant border tariffs are paid, according to lawyers familiar with the rules. Entities selling and sending them to China would be violating US regulations, however.

Last week, Nvidia chief Jensen Huang announced that the Trump administration would begin to allow the selling of its China-specific H20 chip once more.

In the three months beforehand, Chinese distributors from Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Anhui provinces sold Nvidia’s B200s, as well as other restricted processors such as the H100 and H200.

According to contracts reviewed by the FT and people with knowledge of the transactions, the total sales during this period are estimated to be more than $1 billion.

Nvidia has long insisted there is “no evidence of any AI chip diversion”. There is no evidence that the company is involved in, or has knowledge of, its restricted products being sold to China.

“Trying to cobble together data centers from smuggled products is a losing proposition, both technically and economically,” Nvidia told the FT. “Data centers require service and support, which we provide only to authorized Nvidia products.”

“The new century of a smart China”

One Anhui-based company, whose name translates to “Gate of the Era,” is one of the largest sellers of B200s, according to documents seen by the FT.

It was founded in February, as speculation mounted that Trump would stop H20 chip sales to China. The company is fully owned by a group with the same name based in Shanghai, registered on the same day, according to company filings.

The chips were sold in ready-built racks, each containing eight B200s as well as other components and software needed to plug straight into a data centre. Such a rack is about the size of a large suitcase and weighs close to 150 kg including packaging.

The current market price ranges between RMB 3 million to RMB 3.5 million ($489,000) per rack, down from more than RMB 4 million in mid-May when they first became available in China in large quantities. The current prices represent about a 50 percent premium from the average selling price of similar products in the US.

Since mid-May, Gate of the Era obtained at least two shipments of a few hundred B200 racks each, according to people with knowledge of the deals. They sold them directly—or indirectly via secondary distributors—to various data centre suppliers and other companies. Gate of the Era and its affiliates are estimated to have sold close to $400mn of such products.

Gate of the Era lists an AI solution provider China Century—or Huajiyuan in Chinese—as its largest shareholder, according to company registration files.

Also headquartered in Shanghai, China Century states on its website it has a lab in Silicon Valley as well as a supply chain centre in Singapore, with the company saying it uses data tools to build “the new century of a smart China.”

China Century claims to have more than 100 business partners and highlights AliCloud, ByteDance’s Huoshan Cloud, as well as Baidu Cloud as “trusted partners” on its website.

AliCloud and Baidu did not respond to requests for comment. Huoshan Cloud’s name was taken off China Century’s website after the FT approached them for comment. Huoshan Cloud said: “It is standard practice for any company to manage the unauthorized use of its logo.

“We have not procured Nvidia’s chips. We do not have any related [Nvidia chip] business,” said China Century, adding that it did “smart city work,”

The FT visited the registered headquarters of Gate of the Era at an office in a government-run industrial park dedicated to cryptography companies. No representative was available. The company had not yet moved into the office since changing its registration to the address in June.

The FT also visited its previous registered address, which was occupied by a real estate investment group that had been there for more than two years and claimed no connection. When reached on the phone, Gate of the Era declined to comment.

According to industry insiders, product specifications and pictures of packaging seen by the FT, many of the B200 racks sold by Gate of the Era, as well as other Chinese distributors, over the past months were originally from Supermicro, a US-based assembler that provides chip solutions to data centers.

There is no suggestion that Supermicro is involved in or has knowledge of its products being smuggled into China. Supermicro said it “complies with all US export control requirements on the sale and export of GPU systems.”

“Export controls will not prevent the most advanced Nvidia products from entering China,” said one Chinese data centre operator. “What it creates is just inefficiency and huge profits for the risk-taking middlemen.”

“It’s like a seafood market”

Some Chinese distributors openly market products such as Supermicro’s B200 racks on social media that show photos of packages with the company’s logo—although it has not been verified if the sales have been completed.

To showcase the “plug-and-use” nature of such racks, some vendors provide testing for buyers, according to those with knowledge of the practice and clips posted online. Transactions tend to happen on the spot, with buyers picking up the products after checking their legitimacy.

On social media, groups are created to match supply and demand from hundreds of traders and data centre suppliers.

Apart from B200, various other restricted Nvidia chips such as H200, H100, and 5090 are being advertised openly on Chinese social media platforms such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu.

Packaging and installation pictures and videos seen by the FT show product logos of companies such as Supermicro, Dell, and Asus—infrastructure providers that assemble Nvidia’s chips into servers.

There is no suggestion that these companies are aware of the social media advertising or their products being sold in China.

Like Supermicro, Dell, and Asus said they maintained rigorous and strict compliance to all laws and regulations, including US export controls, and took action against partners who failed to comply.

“It’s like a seafood market,” said one distributor, “There’s no shortage.”

Racks for sale—with more smuggled stock to come

The B200 is in high demand given its performance, value, and relatively easy maintenance compared with the more complex Grace Blackwell series, according to industry insiders.

The GB200 AI rack, containing Nvidia’s most high-end products, also appear to be available in China despite US export controls.

One distributor claimed it had sold 10 racks of GB200 at close to RMB 40 million ($5.6 million) each. The FT could not independently verify this claim, while marketing information about GB200 from various distributors’ accounts on social media shows consistent pricing and stock status as “available for pick up onshore.”

Some Chinese distributors have even started advertising for their future stock of B300s, Nvidia’s upgrade from the B200 expected to enter mass production in the fourth quarter of this year.

US export controls have had some effect on the black market.

Given the nature of such products, leading Chinese AI players with global operations are not able to order them in a legally compliant way, install them in their own data centers, or receive Nvidia’s customer support.

This has led to third-party data centre operators becoming key buyers who then provide computing services. Other clients include smaller companies in tech, finance, and health care that do not have strong compliance requirements, as well as Chinese companies on the so-called US entity list that are not allowed to buy any Nvidia chips legally.

However, the scale of these projects is much smaller compared with mega clusters of data centers being built by tech giants around the world.

With H20 export controls having been lifted, many Chinese tech companies are expected to resume purchasing the compliant chips in large sums even though its performance is generations behind the still restricted products such as B200, according to people familiar with their plans.

Black market sales for B200s and other restricted Nvidia chips dropped noticeably after the relaxation of the H20 ban, according to multiple distributors.

“People are weighing their options now H20 is available again,” said one distributor. “But there will always be demand for the most cutting-edge stuff.”

The Southeast Asia stop off

Industry experts said that Southeast Asian countries have become markets where Chinese groups obtained restricted chips.

The US Department of Commerce is discussing adding more export controls on advanced AI products to countries such as Thailand as soon as September, according to two people familiar with the matter. This rule is mainly targeting Chinese intermediaries used to obtain advanced AI chips via these countries.

The US commerce department declined to comment. The Thai government did not respond to a request for comment.

Earlier this month, Malaysia introduced stricter export controls targeting advanced AI chip shipments from the country to other destinations, especially China.

The potential tightening of export controls on Southeast Asian countries has also contributed to buyers rushing to place orders before such rules take effect, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Even if these avenues to obtain AI chips are closed, Chinese industry insiders said new shipping routes would be established. Supplies have already started arriving via European countries not on the restricted list.

“History has proven many times before that given the huge profit, arbitrators will always find a way,” said one Chinese distributor.

Additional reporting by Michael Acton, Demetri Sevastopulo, and Anantha Lakshmi.

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