How a Blacklisted Chinese Tech Giant Kept Buying America’s Best A.I. Chips

Washington, D.C., is the government of the United States. It puts special rules on some companies. These rules are called sanctions. Washington put sanctions on a big Chinese tech company named Inspur. This is because Inspur works with the Chinese military. The sanctions mean Inspur cannot buy important technology from the U.S.

But Inspur has another company, like a smaller part of itself. This smaller company is called a subsidiary. This subsidiary kept buying special computer parts. These parts are called chips. They are very important for Artificial Intelligence, or AI. An American company called Nvidia makes these good chips.

So, Inspur's subsidiary buys these Nvidia chips. Then, it sends them to big AI companies in China. This happens even with the sanctions. It means a blacklisted company can still get the best American AI technology through its other companies.