Nvidia Blackwell Ultra B300s Detected in China Telecom Network
Israeli security firm Lava identified 32 export-controlled chips in a state-owned carrier, a finding Nvidia characterizes as a negligible anomaly in the broader market.
By Mateo Thompson ·
Thirty-two Nvidia Blackwell Ultra B300 graphics processing units have been identified within the network of China Telecom, a state-owned telecommunications provider. The discovery, reported by Israeli security firm Lava, highlights a persistent challenge in enforcing U.S. export controls on high-performance artificial intelligence hardware. These specific chips are barred from direct export to China, meaning their presence in a major Chinese data center suggests they reached the country through secondary channels or whitelisted intermediaries.
The identification of the hardware raises significant questions regarding the integrity of current supply chain restrictions. The B300 series is only available to buyers on an approved list who agree not to resell to sanctioned parties. Despite these protocols, the chips have surfaced in a prominent Chinese infrastructure environment. This incident follows earlier reports from 2025 indicating that Chinese entities smuggled approximately $1 billion worth of Nvidia AI chips into the country over a three-month period, primarily targeting the previous generation B200 models before distributors shifted focus to the newer B300 series.
Lava confirmed the presence of the 32 B300 units by utilizing Nvidia’s own DCGM Exporter tool, a software utility designed for internal server health monitoring. Although intended for data center operators, the tool can sometimes be accessed from outside the local network and frequently lacks password authentication requirements. While Lava has confirmed the chips are located within China Telecom's infrastructure, the precise physical location within the company's network remains unknown. Nvidia is currently developing a dedicated tracking tool to help locate its silicon, but it has not yet been released to the public.
Nvidia has acknowledged the findings but has downplayed their financial impact on the company’s overall business. A spokesperson stated that recent court cases have shown the diversion of controlled U.S. products to be less than half of one percent. The company described this leakage as a drop in the bucket compared to the massive domestic compute capacity China already possesses. Nvidia emphasized that with tens of millions of GPUs already in service in approved countries, the smuggling issue remains a non-factor, particularly as governments on both sides of the Pacific continue to tighten enforcement.
The Blackwell Ultra B300, announced in March 2025, represents a substantial leap in performance, offering 50% more memory and fourth-order floating-point compute capabilities than its predecessor, the B200. Nvidia positioned the chip as a cornerstone for the age of reasoning, specifically citing advanced large language models like DeepSeek R1. The high demand for this specific hardware has led to complex smuggling operations, including a recent indictment in Taiwan involving nine individuals accused of illegally exporting B300 units to China. This case involved a whitelisted server trading firm, adding another layer of complexity to the enforcement landscape.
The scarcity of cutting-edge Nvidia silicon has driven up prices for older models, with five-year-old A100 servers seeing their costs triple to as much as $82,000. In response to the high price tag of new AI chips, some operators have begun retooling gaming GPUs to handle AI workloads where feasible. As the B300 becomes a hot commodity in the global AI market, the ongoing tension between U.S. export controls and Chinese demand continues to shape the dynamics of the data center industry.
