China Adds AI Chips to 'Secure' Tech Assessments, Expanding Domestic Tech Drive

For the first time, China has included artificial intelligence chips in its official “secure and reliable” technology assessments, expanding the scope of a state-backed drive to adopt domestic alternatives to Western products. The China Information Technology Security Evaluation Centre and the National Secrecy Science and Technology Evaluation Centre released the latest batch of assessments on Tuesday evening, creating a new category for “AI training and inference chips”. The certifications were valid for three years, according to the announcement. As the country’s official assessment bodies for information security and secrecy-related technologies, their approvals are widely viewed as the definitive procurement catalogue for party and government agencies, central state-owned enterprises and other state-linked customers under the Xinchuang initiative. Xinchuang, which translates as information technology application innovation, is Beijing’s long-running campaign to purge foreign hardware and software from sensitive and strategically important information systems. The move highlights how China’s technology replacement drive is pivoting towards AI infrastructure. Initially focused on phasing out US suppliers like Intel and Advanced Micro Devices for central processing units (CPUs) and Oracle for databases, Beijing is now targeting Nvidia and other foreign suppliers of AI computing power. The push has gained urgency following successive rounds of US export controls that restricted Chinese access to advanced graphics processing units (GPUs).