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In brief: There’s a strange situation occurring in China: despite Nvidia’s high-end AI chips being restricted from export to the country, businesses that repair these GPUs are experiencing a boom in demand. One company now handles up to 500 AI chip repairs every month.
The US has restricted the export of Nvidia’s most powerful AI chips to China since 2022 over fears that they could be used for military purposes.
Although these chips aren’t officially available in the Asian nation, a booming repair business has emerged. Reuters reports that one firm in the country, which began fixing gaming GPUs 15 years ago and started including AI chips in 2024, created a new company to handle all accelerator-related customer repairs, which now account for 500 repairs per month.
The company has been advertising its extensive facilities on social media. It even boasts a room that can pack 256 servers to simulate customers’ data center environments.
It’s a lucrative business, with the firm charging between 10,000 yuan and 20,000 yuan ($1,400 to $2,800) to fix one of these GPUs depending on the complexity of the repair.