Apart from the "smuggling business" in China, it seems like repairers are earning hefty sum of money by providing services for NVIDIA's high-end AI chips.
NVIDIA's AI Chips Are Being Repaired By More Than Dozen Firms In China, Extending Their Lifecycle
There's no doubt that China has access to high-end AI chips from around the globe, and more importantly, they have been used by domestic firms for several years now. However, with such a large usage span, the need for repairing chips has risen tremendously. Chinese firms have capitalized on this by offering plenty of services and bringing several H100 and A100 AI chips to the repairers. A report by Reuters claims that one of the firms handles repairs for more than 500 chips per month, and there are a dozen or more such repair shops out there.
The repair industry has seen massive growth in the past few months, which indicates that there has been a continuous flow of AI chips to China, despite US export controls. More importantly, since NVIDIA doesn't provide support for GPUs such as the H100 and A100 to Chinese customers anymore, repairers have capitalized on this to offer services in wide demand. And given that some of the older chips in China have been functional for more than three years, servicing them is seen as a better option compared to getting new ones from NVIDIA or even Huawei.
It is claimed that repairers charge up to $2,800 to fix an AI chip. The services generally include software testing, fan repair, PCB fixing, and replacement of broken parts. The question is how these repairers manage to get the components, but considering that the repair business is at its peak right now, there is a dedicated supply chain for it as well. The repairers are ensuring that the lifecycle of these chips increases by a few months to years, and that way, China would still have access to high-end AI chips.
About the author: Muhammad Zuhair is a hardware and technology reporter for Wccftech, specializing in the semiconductor industry and the complex interplay between technology, manufacturing, and geopolitics. His coverage focuses on the corporate strategies and technological roadmaps of industry giants like TSMC, NVIDIA, Samsung, and Intel. Zuhair's expertise lies in deconstructing complex topics such as fabrication nodes (e.g., 2nm process), the economic impact of policies like the CHIPS Act, and the strategic development of AI infrastructure from NVIDIA, AMD and Intel.
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