This is a reupload of the amazing documentary by @GamersNexus on the NVidia GPU black market. The original video was hit with rather suspicious DMCA copy...
Really fun watch. I probably am more aware of this than most so most of the contextual information was “common sense” or “open secrets”, but never really saw anyone put it that clearly or blatantly before. And the technical segments (building a frankenboard) were awesome.
Although one thing me and a few buddies keep wondering but are too afraid to ask legal about: Did Steve actually film himself committing a crime when he bought the card? Like, he as a US citizen is a party that can buy one of those and as long as he didn’t give it to anyone else, it is no different than buying and shipping a card from a less than reputable source. But it also raises every single export control flag in my head.
My conclusion is that the US is getting what it wants out of the importation block regardless of smuggling or “fell of the assembly line”.
Universities (China and the US) want a warranty on that hardware. They can’t get a warranty on smuggled hardware. That’s where you would have researchers building models. The GPUs they have are getting old and they don’t have replacements lined up.
The other place to build models is corporations, who might choose to ignore the warranty issue, but they can’t possibly get enough high end GPUs to actually do that. Not while using mules who can only bring in one or two at a time. Maybe they can find a way to smuggle things en masse, but they’d likely just make themselves a target to US trade authorities.
That leaves Chinese gamers as the only ones who want smuggled GPUs at all. US trade policy doesn’t give a shit about them.
So yes, there’s smuggling, Nvidia certainly knows about it, US trade authorities certainly know about it, but nobody has any reason to care.
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They got mad, that’s how you know it slegit. Literally better than any 5 star review.
Fuck Bloomberg. All my homies hate Bloomberg.
Really fun watch. I probably am more aware of this than most so most of the contextual information was “common sense” or “open secrets”, but never really saw anyone put it that clearly or blatantly before. And the technical segments (building a frankenboard) were awesome.
Although one thing me and a few buddies keep wondering but are too afraid to ask legal about: Did Steve actually film himself committing a crime when he bought the card? Like, he as a US citizen is a party that can buy one of those and as long as he didn’t give it to anyone else, it is no different than buying and shipping a card from a less than reputable source. But it also raises every single export control flag in my head.
I doubt it. Bringing it into the country would be illegal, but even if he brought it home, bringing it out isn’t illegal.
Edit: OP corrected the link. Please support Gamer’s Nexus.
This is a re-upload by a third party. Which is perfectly acceptable, but do note it’s not back up on Gamer’s Nexus’ page.No it’s on the GN page again as of 2/3 days ago.
edit: just seen the edit :)
Oops, thanks, I was watching it on my phone and grabbed the wrong link from Duckduckgo. I’ve corrected the link to point to their video.
Note that it is back up - I’m watching it on their channel on my phone right now.
Shit I just posted this without seeing your post. Deleting 🥲
My conclusion is that the US is getting what it wants out of the importation block regardless of smuggling or “fell of the assembly line”.
Universities (China and the US) want a warranty on that hardware. They can’t get a warranty on smuggled hardware. That’s where you would have researchers building models. The GPUs they have are getting old and they don’t have replacements lined up.
The other place to build models is corporations, who might choose to ignore the warranty issue, but they can’t possibly get enough high end GPUs to actually do that. Not while using mules who can only bring in one or two at a time. Maybe they can find a way to smuggle things en masse, but they’d likely just make themselves a target to US trade authorities.
That leaves Chinese gamers as the only ones who want smuggled GPUs at all. US trade policy doesn’t give a shit about them.
So yes, there’s smuggling, Nvidia certainly knows about it, US trade authorities certainly know about it, but nobody has any reason to care.