A Chinese university with ties to the nation's military has acquired advanced artificial intelligence chips from U.S. manufacturer Nvidia, despite existing export bans, according to procurement records.

Northwestern Polytechnical University, part of China's elite "Seven Sons of National Defense" group, purchased two of Nvidia's H200 AI chips last month. These chips are among the most powerful available for training and running advanced AI systems and are subject to strict U.S. export controls.

The university's management school acquired the chips for 874,700 yuan ($123,000) through a domestic technology firm, Shaanxi Bosuan Network Technology, rather than directly from Nvidia. This transaction comes amid heightened scrutiny of Nvidia and its CEO, Jensen Huang, over his lobbying efforts for relaxed export restrictions to China and reports of alleged Chinese intelligence operations targeting him.

These purchases highlight how Chinese institutions with military connections continue to access U.S. AI technology, either by buying components or renting computing power from local companies. The U.S. government has sought to limit China's access to advanced AI chips, fearing their potential application in military modernization and intelligence gathering.

Northwestern Polytechnical University, located in Xi'an, has a history of research related to military aircraft, missiles, and satellites. The U.S. Department of Commerce first placed the university on its Entity List, a trade blacklist, in 2001 due to alleged involvement in missile proliferation. These restrictions were further tightened in 2019, making export licenses for controlled U.S. technology to the university subject to a policy of denial.

Despite these restrictions, the university has also secured access to H200 chips and other powerful Nvidia processors through five contracts this year for rented computing capacity from Chinese companies, according to earlier procurement records. This indicates a pattern of circumventing direct purchase bans.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has previously argued that maintaining sales to China would preserve U.S. technological leadership and ensure Chinese customers remain dependent on its technology. However, some U.S. lawmakers express concerns that access to cutting-edge AI chips could accelerate China's development of sophisticated weaponry and intelligence analysis tools.

This incident raises further questions about the effectiveness of U.S. export controls on advanced technology and the strategies employed by Chinese entities to acquire them, particularly those with defense sector links.