Source: Content compiled from glassalmanac

As geopolitical tensions between China and the United States dominate the headlines, a third player has quietly entered the fray: Russia. Despite international sanctions targeting China's tech sector, Russia has largely avoided the same scrutiny, especially in the semiconductor industry. However, recent developments suggest that Russia plans to take advantage of some of the world's most advanced hardware, despite U.S. efforts to prevent it from using it.

Russia escapes US semiconductor sanctions

In the global battle for control of the semiconductor supply chain, the United States has imposed severe sanctions on China in an effort to restrict its development of advanced technology. However, while China has found ways to circumvent these restrictions, often relying on parallel import channels from third countries, Russia appears to be acting more cautiously.

Reports show that in 2022 alone, Russia imported $2.5 billion worth of advanced semiconductor circuits, many of which came from Western suppliers. These components have found their way into Russian military hardware, including weapons seized by Ukrainian forces, many of which contain foreign-made semiconductors. This has caused concern in the West, as some experts believe that Russia is obtaining key chips through channels in countries such as Turkey and the UAE, bypassing direct trade restrictions. Despite these sanctions, Russia is still finding ways to obtain the technology it needs for its military and artificial intelligence ambitions.

Russia's bold plan: supercomputer using banned NVIDIA H100 chip

One of the most significant moves in this ongoing technological arms race is Russia's plan to build up to 10 supercomputers by 2030, each equipped with thousands of NVIDIA H100 GPUs. It's a bold statement from the Kremlin that it intends to remain competitive in the rapidly evolving fields of supercomputing and artificial intelligence (AI).

The United States has long banned the sale of its most powerful GPUs, including the A100 and H100, to countries like Russia and China. These chips are essential to the development of cutting-edge AI and supercomputing technologies. The H100 in particular has impressive processing power, making it a key tool for AI applications such as machine learning and data analytics.

Despite these sanctions, Russia is determined to purchase between 100,000 and 150,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs, according to industry reports. Their goal is to create a supercomputer capable of handling about 450 teraflops (TFLOPS) of FP64 calculations - a remarkable achievement, but still not enough to rival the world's most powerful supercomputers, which can achieve exaflops (billions of calculations per second).

Russia's attempt to source H100 chips on the black market, where they can cost up to $20,000 each, is an open challenge to the U.S. and its allies. Demand for these advanced GPUs is so high that companies and governments are turning to unofficial sources, including imports from India, Taiwan and Singapore, to circumvent U.S. restrictions.

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