Nvidia’s banned AI chips double in price on China’s black market - Financial Times

NVIDIA's AI chips have seen their prices double on China's black market, rising from $75 per month, reflecting profound shifts in the global semiconductor supply chain. As U.S. export controls on Chin... Read original →

U.S. export controls on AI chips are fracturing the global tech stack. NVIDIA’s black-market GPU prices doubling in China reveals acute dependency on U.S. compute for AI training—domestic alternatives like Huawei Ascend lack software maturity and ecosystem scale to fill the H100 performance gap. This forces Chinese cloud and AI firms into gray-market procurement, heightening compliance exposure. Meanwhile, TSMC and Taiwan-based supply chains face secondary scrutiny, accelerating foundry diversification to Mexico and India. Over the next 12–24 months, black-market premiums will catalyze China’s pivot toward Chiplet integration and in-memory computing as workarounds, while pressuring NVIDIA to deploy downgraded SKUs tailored for regulated markets. The episode marks a structural shift: semiconductor sovereignty is now central to global tech competition, with supply chains fragmenting along geopolitical lines.