At least $1 billion worth of Nvidia’s advanced artificial intelligence processors reached China in the three months after Donald Trump tightened chip export controls, according to a Financial Times analysis of sales contracts, company filings, and people with direct knowledge of the deals.
The reporting points to a central tension in the semiconductor fight between Washington and Beijing: restrictions can block official sales, but they do not automatically stop demand, distribution networks, or resale markets. Nvidia’s B200, a processor used by US companies including OpenAI, Google, and Meta to train their latest AI systems, has become especially sought after even though it is banned for sale to China.
A black market built around demand for B200 chips
According to documents reviewed by the FT, multiple Chinese distributors began selling B200s in May to suppliers of data centers that serve Chinese AI groups. That timing followed the Trump administration’s move to prevent sales of the H20, a less-powerful Nvidia chip designed to comply with Joe Biden-era curbs.
The restricted chips being sold in China were not limited to B200s. In the three months before Nvidia chief Jensen Huang said the Trump administration would begin allowing sales of the China-specific H20 chip again, distributors in Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Anhui provinces sold B200s as well as H100 and H200 processors.
Lawyers familiar with the rules told the FT that receiving and selling restricted Nvidia chips in China is legal if relevant border tariffs are paid. The legal exposure sits elsewhere: entities selling and sending the chips to China would be violating US regulations.
Nvidia has said there is “no evidence of any AI chip diversion”. The FT also reported that there is no evidence Nvidia is involved in, or has knowledge of, restricted products being sold into China.
“Trying to cobble together data centers from smuggled products is a losing proposition, both technically and economically,” Nvidia told the FT. “Data centers require service and support, which we provide only to authorized Nvidia products.”
Gate of the Era and ready-built rack sales
One company identified in the FT reporting is an Anhui-based seller whose name translates to “Gate of the Era.” Documents seen by the FT described it as one of the largest sellers of B200s.
The company was founded in February, as speculation grew that Trump would stop H20 chip sales to China. Company filings show it is fully owned by a group with the same name based in Shanghai, registered on the same day.
The chips were sold in ready-built racks rather than only as individual processors. Each rack contained eight B200s, along with other components and software needed to plug directly into a data centre. The FT described each rack as about the size of a large suitcase and close to 150 kg including packaging.
The reported market price ranged between RMB 3 million to RMB 3.5 million ($489,000) per rack, down from more than RMB 4 million in mid-May, when the racks first became available in China in large quantities. The FT said those prices represented about a 50 percent premium from the average selling price of similar products in the US.
Since mid-May, Gate of the Era obtained at least two shipments of a few hundred B200 racks each, according to people with knowledge of the deals. The company sold them directly, or indirectly through secondary distributors, to data centre suppliers and other companies. Gate of the Era and its affiliates are estimated to have sold close to $400mn of such products.
Company links and disputed claims
Company registration files list AI solution provider China Century, also known as Huajiyuan in Chinese, as Gate of the Era’s largest shareholder. China Century is headquartered in Shanghai and says on its website that it has a lab in Silicon Valley and a supply chain centre in Singapore.
The company says it uses data tools to build “the new century of a smart China.” Its website claims more than 100 business partners and had highlighted AliCloud, ByteDance’s Huoshan Cloud, and Baidu Cloud as “trusted partners.”
AliCloud and Baidu did not respond to requests for comment. Huoshan Cloud’s name was removed from China Century’s website after the FT approached for comment. Huoshan Cloud said: “It is standard practice for any company to manage the unauthorized use of its logo.
China Century denied involvement in Nvidia chip business. “We have not procured Nvidia’s chips. We do not have any related [Nvidia chip] business,” the company said, adding that it did “smart city work,”
The FT visited Gate of the Era’s registered headquarters at an office in a government-run industrial park dedicated to cryptography companies, but no representative was available. The company had not moved into the office after changing its registration to the address in June. At its previous registered address, a real estate investment group said it had been there for more than two years and had no connection. Gate of the Era declined to comment by phone.
Social media trading and supply chain questions
Industry insiders, product specifications, and packaging pictures seen by the FT indicated that many B200 racks sold by Gate of the Era and other Chinese distributors were originally from Supermicro, a US-based assembler that provides chip solutions to data centers. The FT said there is no suggestion Supermicro is involved in or has knowledge of products being smuggled into China.
Supermicro said it “complies with all US export control requirements on the sale and export of GPU systems.” Dell and Asus, whose product logos also appeared in packaging and installation pictures and videos seen by the FT, said they maintained rigorous and strict compliance with laws and regulations, including US export controls, and took action against partners who failed to comply.
Some Chinese distributors openly market products such as Supermicro’s B200 racks on social media, showing photos of packages with company logos, though the FT said it had not verified whether those sales were completed. Vendors also provide testing for buyers to show that racks are “plug-and-use,” with transactions often happening on the spot after buyers check the products.
Social media groups have been created to match supply and demand among hundreds of traders and data centre suppliers. Alongside B200, restricted Nvidia chips including H200, H100, and 5090 are advertised on Chinese platforms such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu.
For one Chinese data centre operator, the market shows the limits of enforcement. “Export controls will not prevent the most advanced Nvidia products from entering China,” the operator said. “What it creates is just inefficiency and huge profits for the risk-taking middlemen.” Another distributor put it more bluntly: “It’s like a seafood market,” adding, “There’s no shortage.”