Nvidia Reiterates Its Chips Don’t Have Back Doors

Nvidia reiterated that its chips don’t—and shouldn’t—have back doors or kill switches, days after Beijing summoned the U.S. artificial-intelligence chip giant

Nvidia reiterated that its chips don’t—and shouldn’t—have back doors or kill switches, days after Beijing summoned the U.S. artificial-intelligence chip giant over national-security concerns.

Nvidia’s statement comes after Beijing summoned the U.S. chip giant over national-security concerns.

“There are no back doors in NVIDIA chips. No kill switches. No spyware,” Nvidia said in a blog post late Tuesday. “That’s not how trustworthy systems are built—and never will be.” A Chinese version of the post was published on WeChat.

China’s cybersecurity regulator last week summoned Nvidia to explain the “backdoor security risks” associated with its H20 chips and asked it to submit relevant documents.

The meeting came after some U.S. policymakers in May called for advanced chips to be equipped with location-verification technology to detect “smuggling or exploitation.”

On Tuesday, Nvidia said there is “no such thing as a ‘good’ secret backdoor—only dangerous vulnerabilities that need to be eliminated.” It warned against embedding any back doors or kill switches into chips, saying such moves enable hackers and hostile actors and would undermine trust in U.S. technology.

Nvidia in July received a green light to resume selling its H20 AI chip in China, following a monthslong pause amid escalating U.S.-China trade tensions earlier this year.

The chip, specially designed for Chinese customers who comply with U.S. export rules, has been a top seller since 2024.

Write to Jiahui Huang at Jiahui.Huang@wsj.com