The episode slots into a U.S.-China AI relationship that has spent 2026 swinging in both directions at once. Washington had earlier placed export restrictions on AI chips to China. It loosened hardware controls this year, clearing roughly 10 Chinese firms , including Alibaba, to buy H200S in quantities of up to 75,000 units per customer. However, Beijing simultaneously discouraged Chinese firms from buying approved American silicon, citing its own security concerns, as part of a deliberate push toward an indigenous AI stack.
Software access now appears to be following a similar trajectory of restrictions. Anthropic is blocking China at the account level; now, China's largest tech company has banned Anthropic at the workplace level. Earlier, OpenAI banned numerous China-linked accounts accused of artificially amplifying backlash against U.S. data center electricity prices.
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Etiido Uko is a news contributor for Tom's Hardware covering the latest updates in big tech and the PC industry. He is a mechanical engineer and senior technical writer with over nine years of experience in documentation and reporting. He is deeply passionate about all things engineering and technology, and is an expert in gadgets, manufacturing, robotics, automotive, and aerospace. ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-25/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Etiido Uko Social Links Navigation News Contributor Etiido Uko is a news contributor for Tom's Hardware covering the latest updates in big tech and the PC industry. He is a mechanical engineer and senior technical writer with over nine years of experience in documentation and reporting. He is deeply passionate about all things engineering and technology, and is an expert in gadgets, manufacturing, robotics, automotive, and aerospace.
micheal_15 Alibaba. the same company that FILLS existing product firmware with malicious payloads. everything from motherboards, RAM sticks (with replaced memory controller chips) to entire PCI-E cards/GPUs. Horrific unremoveable malware that installs other software designed to keylog and attack banking apps, steal work documents and passwords and funnel them back DIRECT to Alibaba. Reply
ThatMouse Qoder is a strange pick, but based in Singapore. They probably made a deal with them. Reply
The Beav ThatMouse said: Qoder is a strange pick, but based in Singapore. They probably made a deal with them. It says in the article you just read that Alibaba owns Qoder… Reply
nookoool micheal_15 said: Alibaba. the same company that FILLS existing product firmware with malicious payloads. everything from motherboards, RAM sticks (with replaced memory controller chips) to entire PCI-E cards/GPUs. Horrific unremoveable malware that installs other software designed to keylog and attack banking apps, steal work documents and passwords and funnel them back DIRECT to Alibaba. um… alibaba is a market place… Reply
derekullo nookoool said: um… alibaba is a market place… And Google is just a search engine! Things aren't always what they seem on the surface. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alibaba_Group$248.83 billion in assets lol Reply
adamXpeter Isn't it allowed to steal from thieves? Reply
Key considerations
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/alibaba-bans-anthropics-claude-code-after-an-alleged-hidden-china-detection-backdoor-is-uncovered-employees-told-to-switch-to-qoder-as-the-rift-between-the-firms-widens#main
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