In the current Chinese market, the demand for maintenance of high-end AI chips from NVIDIA, such as the H100 and A100 models that are subject to American sanctions, has surged dramatically. This has led to an underground repair frenzy.
Two repair companies in Shenzhen have revealed that there are around ten small companies or studios in Shenzhen alone specializing in providing services for repairing NVIDIA H100 GPUs and A100 GPUs that have been imported into China through various channels.
Even before the release of the H100, the US authorities had banned its sales in China in September 2022, and its predecessor, the A100, was also banned after being on the market for over two years.
“There is currently a huge demand for repairs,” said a partner of a company that has been repairing NVIDIA gaming GPUs for 15 years. The company has been involved in the repair of AI chips since the end of 2024.
Due to the booming business, owners have even established new companies dedicated solely to handling these orders. Currently, the company can repair up to 500 NVIDIA AI chips per month. Their social media advertisements indicate that the company has set up a testing room simulating a data center environment for repair testing and performance evaluation.
Reuters’ analysis suggests that despite Chinese tech companies launching lower-performance new chip products, the demand for advanced NVIDIA GPUs in the Chinese market remains strong. As these high-end chips are restricted by the US export ban, it is speculated that they have mostly entered China through stockpiling before the ban, third-party transfers, or unofficial trade channels.
In China, NVIDIA is unable to legally provide repair or replacement services for these restricted products. In comparison, insiders say that if a defect appears in NVIDIA GPUs in other countries/regions and within the warranty period (usually three years), the company would typically provide a replacement.
In China, some H100 and A100 GPUs have been processing data continuously day and night for years, leading to an increase in failure rates.
As related demands rise, a grey repair chain has emerged in the Chinese market, attempting to extend the lifespan of these chips to fill the gap left by the difficulty of obtaining new supplies.
For servers equipped with GPUs, repair services typically include software testing, fan maintenance, diagnosis and repair of printed circuit boards and GPU memory failures, as well as replacement of damaged parts.
The smuggling of NVIDIA AI chips has raised concerns among bipartisan members of the US Congress.
Senator Tom Cotton introduced the “Chip Security Act,” which calls on the Department of Commerce to establish a tracking system for advanced chips subject to export controls to ensure that the ultimate destination can be traced after shipment, preventing chips from ending up in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party. The Trump administration also supported this bill this week.
Regarding the emerging situation in the underground repair market in China, an NVIDIA spokesperson stated that only the company and authorized partners “can provide customers with complete service and technical support. The use of unauthorized hardware, software, and restricted technical support products is not feasible both technically and economically.”
(This article references a report by Reuters)