Nvidia Opposes Potential 'Kill Switch' Feature in Exported Chips
Nvidia chips don’t have and shouldn’t be required to have so-called “kill switches” that would allow exported chips to be remotely disabled without the user’s consent, the semiconductor company said this week.
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Nvidia said some pundits and policymakers have suggested that exported U.S. chips should have the switches, which could “mitigate the risk of misuse.” But the company said its chips “do not and should not have kill switches and backdoors,” arguing that they would give hackers an avenue to access the chip and introduce other vulnerabilities.
“There is no such thing as a ‘good’ secret backdoor -- only dangerous vulnerabilities that need to be eliminated,” Nvidia said. “Product security must always be done the right way: through rigorous internal testing, independent validation and full compliance with global cybersecurity standards.”
A bipartisan bill introduced earlier this year would require export-controlled advanced computing chips to contain location-verification mechanisms, but it wouldn’t mandate kill switches (see 2507080001). Some technology policy experts have criticized the possibility of even a location-tracking requirement, saying it would likely raise major privacy concerns among customers and could eventually lead to the introduction of more intrusive on-chip governance mechanisms (see 2507170040).
Nvidia noted that some smartphones have features like “find my phone,” which some believe could serve as a model for a kill switch. But it said “that comparison doesn’t hold water -- optional software features, controlled by the user, are not hardware backdoors.”
“Hardwiring a kill switch into a chip is something entirely different: a permanent flaw beyond user control, and an open invitation for disaster,” Nvidia said. “It’s like buying a car where the dealership keeps a remote control for the parking brake -- just in case they decide you shouldn’t be driving. That’s not sound policy. It’s an overreaction that would irreparably harm America’s economic and national security interests.”
Nvidia pointed to the failure of the Clipper Chip, a cryptographic device developed by the U.S. in the 1990s that was intended for secure communication devices but would allow the U.S. government to decipher calls and gather information from those devices. The Clipper Chip “represented everything wrong with built-in backdoors,” the company said, adding that the feature allowed “malicious parties to tamper with the software” and undermined confidence in U.S. communication devices.
“There are no back doors in NVIDIA chips. No kill switches. No spyware,” it said. “That’s not how trustworthy systems are built -- and never will be.”
The company’s comments came days after China's Cyberspace Administration announced it was probing Nvidia due to concerns that its chips may be equipped with features to track the location of or potentially shut down H20 chips sold in China (see 2507310010). The Trump administration recently announced it would be approving exports of the previously restricted H20 chips to China (see 2508010002).