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THE NVIDIA AI GPU BLACK MARKET | Investigating Smuggling, Corruption, & Governments

Gamers Nexus

2.7M subscribers • 6 videos on Hallway

YouTube
  • Recommended by 4 people: 4 on Hacker News.
  • Presented by Steve Burke, Editor-in-Chief of Gamers Nexus
  • May be out of date. The tools, versions or practices it shows have likely moved on.

Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

3.4M views1 year ago4 recommendations

HardwareAI and machine learningThe tech industry

Gamers Nexus investigates the underground supply chain smuggling export-restricted Nvidia AI GPUs into China through various middlemen and shell companies.

SUPPORT THIS MOVIE: store.gamersnexus.net/black-market-gpu-backers - the backer tiers are the only way to get digital rewards, like the wallpaper packs, bonus videos we're filming, behind-the-scenes with the team, and the USB key with the movie written to it! They are only available a limited time. NVIDIA (NVDA) GPUs have become so in-demand for so-called "AI" workloads that a black market has emerged around them. Where there's prohibition, there's smuggling, and there's money to be made for everyone in the chain. We found smugglers, users, fences, middlemen, and institutions in China, Taiwan, and the US involved in this pipeline flowing export controlled GPUs to China. This is in violation of US Government law, which now includes imposed numerous restrictions on semiconductor processing capabilities, making legitimate export of high-end GPUs to Chinese companies or governments impossible without rarely-granted licenses. But while this is going on, the US Government, NVIDIA, and AMD have been negotiating a cut of sales of two specific models of GPU in order to unblock over $6 billion in combined lost revenue between the companies. We also spoke with a factory about how they make GPUs for Yeston. Yeston is not involved in the black market and doesn't even make the high-end GPUs that are banned, but it gives us important insight as to how video cards are made and what the process is. The process is the same for all cards, and this means we can show a factory without issues from NVIDIA for a brand which makes high-end NVIDIA GPUs. Learn how Bloomberg copyright struck this video: youtube.com/watch?v=tUnRWh4xOCY COMPREHENSIVE TIMELINE: gamersnexus.net/gpus-news/timeline-gpu-export-controls-nvidi… This is our first full-length, highly produced movie we've ever created. This was made possible thanks to our viewers supporting our ambitions. Grab the Blind Eye T-Shirt: store.gamersnexus.net/products/blind-eye-t-shirt-black-marke… Or the Black Market sticker pack: store.gamersnexus.net/products/nexus-smuggling-co-gpu-case-p… Get a Blacklisted sticker: store.gamersnexus.net/products/blacklisted-t-shirt-cotton Or a GPU VRAM gold halo pint glass: store.gamersnexus.net/products/gpu-vram-halo-glass You may also be interested in our E-waste Inductor dice, which include 7 tabletop gaming dice with inductors embedded within: store.gamersnexus.net/products/inductor-full-tabletop-mtg-dn… Like our content? Please consider becoming our Patron to support us: patreon.com/gamersnexus Find Mr. 5 on Bilibili here: space.bilibili.com/64391344 Find Brother Zhang on Bilibili: space.bilibili.com/611438407 And find Zhang on YouTube: youtube.com/@fydn/videos TIMESTAMPS - The NVIDIA AI GPU Black Market - WE NEED YOUR HELP

Why it's here

4 people recommend this

What people say. Recommended as a thorough investigative documentary on how export-restricted Nvidia GPUs bypass US sanctions to reach China.

mongrelionon Hacker News • Recommends

On “DeepSeek uses banned Nvidia chips for AI model, report says”

I recommend everyone to watch GamersNexus' documentary on the NVIDIA AI GPU black market. They explain how companies like DeepSeek can get a hold of chips that are otherwise banned by the US government to export to China link to this video

Namahannaon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Super Micro Shares Plunge 25% After Co-Founder Charged in $2.5B Smuggling Plot”

The Gamers Nexus GPU Blackmarket deep dive was great at digging into this. link to this video And the entire Bloomberg takedown drama added fire to the flames.

jacobgkauon Hacker News • Recommends

On “US holds off blacklisting China's DeepSeek, +100 firms deemed security risks”

The GamersNexus documentary ( link to this video ) on the semi-underground GPU trade in China, while a little amateurish in terms of depth and general atmosphere, is an interesting watch and may answer some of your questions. Basically, those export controls make GPUs more expensive for affected parties in China, but don't effectively stop them from being acquired or used over there.

dannywon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Kimi K3, and what we can still learn from the pelican benchmark”

Gamers Nexus has a good video where his team travelled to China and did some actual investigative journalism: link to this video Firstly, the export-restricted GB202s (e.g. 5090, RTX 6000 Pro Blackwell) are fabled in TSMC, and then packaged/made in... China before they supposedly have to be sold out (by US law; but not by Chinese law). You can immediately see the problem there. Secondly, despite the supposed 'crackdowns' and et al, NVIDIA and their channel partners pretty much will sell to anyone in countries like Singapore without any questions. Third, there's human "smugglers" who just physically carry em on trips, and Chinese customs is obviously not going to care about the US's laws on Chinese soil…

Avicebronon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Oracle is building yesterday's data centers with tomorrow's debt”

I wish there to be an active market like what Gamer's Nexus covered in China: link to this video in the States.

John23832on Hacker News • Mentions

On “Super Micro Shares Plunge 25% After Co-Founder Charged in $2.5B Smuggling Plot”

The answer is, of course lol? Gamers Nexus did a whole deep dive which basically proved that Chinese researchers had access to whatever they wanted. link to this video