Inspur’s U.S. Chip Pipeline Tests the Limits of Washington’s Blacklist

Inspur’s U.S. Chip Pipeline Tests the Limits of Washington’s Blacklist
In 2020, the Trump administration put Inspur on a list of Chinese companies linked to the military. Three years later, the Biden administration added the state-controlled server maker to the Entity List, saying it sought U.S. technology for military supercomputers. The designation barred shipments without a licence — but applied to named entities, not automatically to every affiliate.

That gap became central after March 2023. The Inspur sign at a Silicon Valley office was replaced by Aivres, a newly created U.S. subsidiary that continued work connected to its Chinese parent, according to a New York Times examination of shipment records, corporate documents and supply contracts. Federal officials have since begun investigating Aivres, though four officials said the status of the inquiry was unclear.

From April 2024 through February 2026, Aivres exported at least $5.6 billion in advanced technology to Southeast Asia, including more than $3 billion in systems equipped with Nvidia Blackwell chips and related equipment, the reporting found. Those shipments went to data centers and technology companies serving major Chinese firms, including Alibaba and ByteDance. Other server flows from Malaysia reached Maginfra, a Chinese state-owned company whose links to Inspur are indirect on paper but unusually close in personnel, location and patent history.

The competing accounts are stark. Nvidia spokesman John Rizzo said the company does not support “diversion of products” and sells through reputable partners who “work with us to ensure all sales comply with U.S. export control regulations.” He also said the business brings “tens of billions of dollars and high-paying jobs back to the United States.”

The White House says the administration is committed to national security and has imposed the most stringent modern export-control regime. Yet Jordan Nanos of SemiAnalysis, citing Aivres’s shared servers, employees and offices with Inspur, posed the blunt question: “Are they trying to block the company, or not?” Inspur, Aivres, Maginfra, Alibaba and ByteDance did not respond; Megaspeed declined comment.

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