32 Nvidia B300 GPUs Operating in China Telecom Network
Lava detected the export-restricted chips using monitoring software left accessible externally, a finding Nvidia called a minor diversion.
By Carmen Wojcik ·
Lava, an Israeli security firm, identified 32 Nvidia Blackwell Ultra B300 processors running inside the network of China Telecom. The state-owned telecommunications provider operates these chips despite U.S. export controls that generally bar such hardware from the country. The discovery, first reported by The Information, highlights the challenge of tracking high-value silicon after it leaves approved supply chains.
Current regulations permit the sale of this chip class only to whitelisted buyers who agree not to transfer the units to sanctioned parties. Enforcement has remained difficult. A 2025 report indicated that Chinese companies smuggled $1 billion worth of Nvidia AI chips over a three-month period. While B200 processors were the primary target at that time, distributors began preparing for B300-series parts as they became available.
Nvidia did not dispute the presence of the chips but minimized their impact. A spokesperson told Tom's Hardware that recent court cases show an "insignificant diversion of controlled US products, less than one half of one percent in recent court cases, a drop in the bucket compared to the ocean of domestic compute China already has." The company noted that with tens of millions of GPUs in service in approved countries, the report "demonstrates that smuggling is a nonfactor, blocked by governments on both sides of the globe."
Lava detected the hardware using Nvidia's DCGM Exporter, a tool intended for internal monitoring of server health and performance. The firm found the software accessible from outside the data center's network without a password. Lava has not determined the specific location of the chips within China Telecom's infrastructure or the method used to move them into the country. Nvidia is developing its own location tracking tool, but that software has not yet been released.
The B300 was announced in March 2025 and offers 50% more memory and FP4 compute than the preceding B200 model. Nvidia described the chip as "built for the age of reasoning" to support advanced large language models like DeepSeek R1. The processor was expected to ship by the end of 2025 and quickly became highly sought after in the market.
Enforcement actions have intensified alongside the demand for new silicon. In August 2026, nine people were indicted in Taiwan for the illegal export of B300 GPUs to China. These indictments followed days after Supermicro confirmed it fired several employees following an internal investigation into smuggling. The scheme involved Flying Tiget Tech, a Taiwanese server trading firm with whitelisted status for GPU purchases.
High demand continues to raise prices across the market, including for older hardware. Servers built around the five-year-old A100 processor have tripled in price. Some buyers have reportedly begun retooling gaming GPUs to run AI workloads as part of the ongoing crackdown on smuggling.
