On Friday, March 27, according to reports from American media, four regulated Chinese universities have acquired Super Micro servers equipped with NVIDIA artificial intelligence chips. It is currently unclear where these servers originated from.
Reuters reported on Friday that based on public tender documents from 2025 and early 2026, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Harbin Institute of Technology have procured Super Micro servers featuring NVIDIA A100 chips, which are subject to U.S. export controls.
Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Harbin Institute of Technology belong to China’s “Defense Seven” (formerly directly affiliated colleges under the National Defense Science and Industry Commission, also known as the “Defense Seven Universities”), with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party’s military. Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics focuses on the development of China’s aerospace and defense research, while Harbin Institute of Technology is dedicated to research in missile, satellite, and robotics technologies.
The report discovered that Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics announced in a notice on March 16, 2026, that they have purchased a machine learning workstation based on the Super Micro system, which is equipped with four NVIDIA A100 chips.
In addition, a notice from Harbin Institute of Technology in July 2025 also indicated that the university has acquired a Super Micro system with eight NVIDIA A100 chips.
Given that Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Harbin Institute of Technology were both on the U.S. export blacklist, it was unlikely that they obtained permission for A100 chip purchases through official channels. The U.S. has been concerned that artificial intelligence chips could be used for China’s military development, leading to the ban on selling certain NVIDIA chips to China starting in 2022.
Reuters did not mention the names of the other two universities procuring sensitive Super Micro systems.
Currently, Super Micro has declined to comment on the information in the documents. NVIDIA stated that as export control measures expand, they will continue to closely cooperate with customers and the U.S. government to ensure compliance.
In 2024, Reuters reported that some Chinese universities were purchasing servers from brands like Super Micro to obtain restricted chips.
Super Micro, headquartered in San Jose, California, has been in the spotlight recently. Last week, the Justice Department charged three company employees (including its co-founder Liao Yixian) for aiding in smuggling at least $2.5 billion worth of U.S. AI chips to China.
On Monday, two U.S. senators cited the indictments of three Super Micro employees in urging Commerce Secretary Luttig to consider suspending all licenses allowing the export of NVIDIA’s advanced artificial intelligence chips and server systems to China and Southeast Asian intermediaries.