华为让客户自寻 AI 芯片内存，HBM 黑市单价一年涨至约 4000 美元

Huawei tells customers to find their own AI chip memory, effectively outsourcing procurement to the black market

文章要点

1The Information 报道，华为让部分客户自行解决 AI 芯片内存采购，买家实际流向黑市
2深圳一名中介称走私 HBM3E 单价一年从几百美元涨到约 4000 美元，每颗 AI 芯片需 6-8 颗内存
3美国出口管制禁止直接采购三星与 SK Hynix 内存，走私者经香港用低价处理器夹带 HBM 入境
4华为计划明年初发布 Ascend 960DT 称性能翻倍，韩国海关 5 月前已查出 5.6 亿美元违规贸易

决策要点

出口管制切断了华为 AI 芯片的正规内存来源，采购压力被转嫁给客户，灰色渠道成了事实上的供货方式。

影响：依赖华为算力的企业面对的是高价且良率不稳的内存供应，成本与质量风险会传导进算力采购预算；走私渠道本身的违规属性也可能给采购方带来合规牵连。
参考：可考虑在评估 Ascend 方案时把 HBM 来源与价格单独询价，先算出内存占整机成本的比重；值得在采购合同中写明内存渠道与质量责任，把合规风险落纸面。
依据：核心事实出自 The Information 报道，属媒体转述；价格数据来自深圳一名中介的口径，违规金额出自韩国海关统计。

正文

Huawei can't get enough memory for its AI chips, pushing customers onto the black market. A sophisticated smuggling network has sprung up to fill the gap, exploiting a loophole in U.S. export rules.

Huawei is telling some customers to source the memory for its AI chips themselves, effectively pushing buyers onto the black market, The Information reports. The company plans to launch the Ascend 960DT early next year, which it says will double the performance of its current chips. But Huawei's Chinese suppliers can't produce enough High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM), and U.S. export rules block direct purchases from Samsung and SK Hynix. Together, those two companies control over 80 percent of the global market.

Smugglers have found a workaround. They bundle HBM with cheap server processors whose performance falls below the export threshold, then ship the packages to China through Hong Kong. Once there, workshops separate the memory chips from the processors. The process is fragile and the error rate is high, but the margins make it worth it.

Smuggled memory prices have surged to $4,000 per unit

Prices for smuggled HBM3E memory have jumped from a few hundred dollars to around $4,000 per unit in just one year, according to a broker in Shenzhen. Each AI chip needs six to eight units, meaning the memory alone can cost up to $32,000.

The black market doesn't run on smuggling alone. Older Nvidia GPUs stripped for parts and excess inventory from chip designers who scrapped projects or cut orders also feed the supply. South Korea's customs authority had uncovered trade violations worth $560 million by May, already surpassing the previous full-year record. A third of that total involved strategic goods like chips exported without proper authorization or with false declarations.

AI News Without the Hype – Curated by Humans

Subscribe to THE DECODER for ad-free reading, a weekly AI newsletter, our exclusive "AI Radar" frontier report six times a year, full archive access, and access to our comment section.