(Reuters) -China has stepped up its enforcement of its import restrictions on American chips, including Nvidia’s artificial intelligence processors, the Financial Times reported, as Beijing steps up its focus on promoting local semiconductor production.
Chinese customs officials were sent to key ports to carry out strict checks on semiconductor shipments, the newspaper said on Friday, citing unnamed sources.
China customs officials did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment, while an Nvidia spokesperson declined to comment on the report.
The newspaper said the inspections targeted the Nvidia H20 and RTX Pro 6000D, initially designed to comply with US export controls.
The controls have been expanded to include all advanced semiconductor products that violate US export restrictions, according to the report.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
The extent of China’s access to Nvidia’s world-leading chips has been a key point of friction between the United States and China.
The Financial Times newspaper had previously reported that at least $1 billion worth of Nvidia artificial intelligence chips were smuggled and sold in China in the three months after May. Reuters could not independently verify the report.
Nvidia has a new ‘RTX6000D’ AI chip designed for the Chinese market, Reuters reported last month, but it has seen only lukewarm demand and some major tech companies have opted not to place orders.
In August, US President Donald Trump flagged the possibility of allowing Nvidia to sell more advanced chips in China.
Authorities in China have previously accused Nvidia of violating antitrust law. They also ordered major tech companies to halt purchases of Nvidia’s AI chips and cancel existing orders, the FT reported in September.
Despite the advances of Huawei and other Chinese chip companies in recent years, people involved in engineering operations at Chinese technology companies say Nvidia’s chips perform better.
(Reporting by Ananya Palyekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala, Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Subhranshu Sahu)