Despite Nvidia claims, Chinese smugglers have used live lobsters and fake baby bumps to traffic chips

Nvidia and Anthropic have publicly locked horns over the impending enforcement of the U.S. government's new AI Diffusion Rules. According to a CNBC report, an Nvidia spokesperson has described Anthropic's assertions that the Chinese sometimes go to extraordinary lengths to smuggle Nvidia GPUs, as "tall tales."

Specifically, the Green Team has poured scorn on the notion that the Chinese would smuggle GPUs in baby bumps or alongside live lobsters. While Nvidia's stance might have merit if we consider the scale of these bizarre smuggling operations, it is technically wrong, as Chinese Customs have documented these exact occurrences. Check out our links for more details on those particularly peculiar cases. Furthermore, what we see is probably just the tip of the iceberg.

In a statement seen by CNBC, an Nvidia spokesperson insisted that American firms should be innovation-focused rather than tell "tall tales." The same member of the Green Team went on to characterize the Anthropic blog's assertions Chinese smugglers are "hiding processors in prosthetic baby bumps and packing GPUs alongside live lobsters," as nonsense.

This situation seems to have come to a head as the new AI Diffusion Rules, designed to prevent hostile nations like China from gaining advanced AI technologies from the West, are set to come into force from May 15. The Biden administration formulated these rules towards the end of his term (they were published in January).

In one corner, Nvidia is keen to continue supplying as many high-end GPUs to China as the country can absorb, and it is allowed to supply.

Meanwhile, Amazon-backed and U.S.-based AI firm Anthropic naturally wishes for a ready supply of AI accelerators stateside, with fewer competitors to push pricing up. It reportedly has plans for bigger and better data centers to propel its fortunes. Moreover, it pleads the case for keeping transformative AI technologies in the U.S. "in alignment with American values and interests."

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