Nvidia builds new tech to track its AI chips

Santa Clara-based chip manufacturer Nvidia has built location verification technology that can track the location of its graphics processing units (GPUs).

This new feature has been extensively tested in recent months, but hasn’t been released yet. The technology works by allowing the GPUs to communicate with a server. Based on the time it takes for the signal to reach the server, it is possible to determine the approximate location of the chips.

According to an Nvidia official, the tracking software was built to track a chip’s overall computing performance and could be used to offer clients other internet-based services. Furthermore, the new software is optional, not an update.

“We’re in the process of implementing a new software service that empowers data center operators to monitor the health and inventory of their entire AI GPU fleet. This customer-installed software agent leverages GPU telemetry to monitor fleet health, integrity, and inventory,” the company told Reuters in a statement.

Nvidia’s “Blackwell” chips will allegedly be the first chips to incorporate the tracking feature. The company is examining to include this feature in its prior generation “Hopper” and “Ampere” semiconductors as well.

Another use case for Nvidia’s location verification technology is to prevent the smuggling of AI chips to countries where their sale is restricted.

For example, experts have voiced concerns that Beijing plans to utilize Nvidia’s H200 GPUs, the company’s second-most advanced AI chips on the market, to enhance the country’s military capabilities, test new weapons, and develop advanced AI surveillance tools.

For that reason, Nvidia’s H200 GPU was subjected to export restrictions, implemented by the Biden Administration, under the US Export Control Reform Act (ECRA), which prohibits the sale and export of sensitive dual-use technology to foreign adversaries.

However, President Trump announced a policy change earlier this week, allowing the shipment of Nvidia’s H200 chips from the United States to China.

Trump didn’t say if there would be a limit on how many H200 chips would be authorized for shipment, or what other conditions could apply, only that the Commerce Department was “finalizing the details.”

In November, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) busted a smaller Nvidia H200 and H100 chip smuggling scheme worth about $4 million, leading to the arrest of two American citizens and two Chinese nationals.

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