{"id":306788,"date":"2025-06-15T04:15:31","date_gmt":"2025-06-15T11:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/?p=306788"},"modified":"2025-07-01T14:23:30","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T21:23:30","slug":"this-is-the-trick-chinese-firms-are-using-to-bypass-u-s-ai-restrictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/this-is-the-trick-chinese-firms-are-using-to-bypass-u-s-ai-restrictions\/","title":{"rendered":"This is the trick Chinese firms are using to bypass U.S. AI restrictions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the escalating tech conflict between the U.S. and China,&nbsp;<strong>Chinese companies have found a surprisingly low-tech yet effective workaround<\/strong>&nbsp;to American restrictions on artificial intelligence development. While Washington tightens controls on chip exports, Chinese engineers are turning to&nbsp;<strong>physical data transfers using hard drives<\/strong>\u2014a strategy as old-fashioned as it is ingenious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Smuggling data, not hardware<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Instead of smuggling hardware or rerouting supply chains,&nbsp;<strong>Chinese firms are physically transporting massive datasets abroad<\/strong>&nbsp;to train AI models on U.S.-made chips. In one case, four engineers flew from Beijing to Malaysia carrying suitcases packed with hard drives\u2014<strong>each containing up to 80 terabytes of training data<\/strong>. Once there, they used rented servers powered by Nvidia chips to train their AI model and then returned with the output.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why not just use the cloud?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The answer lies in speed and security.&nbsp;<strong>Transferring that volume of data online would have taken months<\/strong>, and introducing those same chips into China is increasingly risky due to customs scrutiny. This method, while manual, allowed for&nbsp;<strong>faster, more controlled deployment of training data<\/strong>, with weeks of preparation spent fine-tuning the dataset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A growing regional workaround<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Countries like Malaysia, Singapore and Saudi Arabia are becoming&nbsp;<strong>key data centers for Chinese firms seeking AI power offshore<\/strong>. Some entities even create local shell companies to lease server capacity discreetly. Meanwhile, the U.S. continues issuing warnings but has stopped short of setting firm limits on chip usage abroad\u2014<strong>leaving space for these strategies to flourish<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The new normal in global tech warfare<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As pressure mounts, China\u2019s use of&nbsp;<strong>physical data transfers reflects a broader shift<\/strong>&nbsp;toward unconventional tactics in the AI arms race. It&#8217;s not just a workaround\u2014<strong>it&#8217;s a calculated, global logistics operation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the escalating tech conflict between the U.S. and China,&nbsp;Chinese companies have found a surprisingly low-tech yet effective workaround&nbsp;to American restrictions on artificial intelligence development. While Washington tightens controls on chip exports, Chinese engineers are turning to&nbsp;physical data transfers using hard drives\u2014a strategy as old-fashioned as it is ingenious. Smuggling data, not hardware Instead of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/this-is-the-trick-chinese-firms-are-using-to-bypass-u-s-ai-restrictions\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;This is the trick Chinese firms are using to bypass U.S. AI restrictions&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9317,"featured_media":306789,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[1015],"tags":[],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-306788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306788"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":306790,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306788\/revisions\/306790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306788"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=306788"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=306788"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=306788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}