# Why Can't China Copy Nvidia GPUs to Make Its Own Graphics Cards - Original post: https://www.twitter.com/i/status/2121125245008613768 - Source account: [@bxiaokang](https://x.com/bxiaokang) - Source language: Chinese (China) - Target language: English - Duration: 3:02 - Published: 2026-11-13 - Machine translated. Check the original before quoting. - Canonical URL: https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards - Original-language version: https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/zh-cn/%E4%B8%BA%E4%BB%80%E4%B9%88%E6%8B%86%E8%A7%A3%E8%8B%B1%E4%BC%9F%E8%BE%BE%E6%98%BE%E5%8D%A1%E4%B9%9F%E9%9A%BE%E4%BB%A5%E5%88%B6%E9%80%A0%E5%9B%BD%E4%BA%A7%E6%98%BE%E5%8D%A1.md ## Transcript [0:00](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards) Why doesn't China study NVIDIA GPUs, then make its own graphics cards? [0:05](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=5) Making graphics cards is harder than making planes or tanks. [0:07](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=7) Oh, come on. It’s just a circuit board, isn’t it? [0:10](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=10) A circuit board? A top-of-the-line one sells for over 200,000 yuan, more than a car. [0:13](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=13) Then take one apart and copy it. Copy it? That stamp-sized chip packs 80 billion transistors, 10 times Earth's population. [0:21](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=21) 80 billion? At one per second, you'd count since Confucius's day. [0:25](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=25) I'll get 10,000 people to copy it. Even 100,000 people can't help. You copy the recipe, and without the right pot, you can't cook. [0:31](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=31) What pot? Come on, I’ll show you. Uh… what are you doing? Put me down! [0:35](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=35) This chip factory is 10,000 times cleaner than an OR. Isn't it much? [0:39](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=39) A speck of dust from you on the line is like a mountain on train tracks. [0:44](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=44) What’s that round, shiny mirror? The light source. Chips are etched here. Made of? [0:48](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=48) Sand, purified into silicon with a purity of 99.9999999%. [0:50](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=50) The wafer is polished to shine, mirror-flat. [0:52](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=52) Where’s the pot? Right here. What’s that huge metal thing? [0:55](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=55) A lithography machine. The most advanced kind. [0:57](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=57) Only one company worldwide makes it. One costs more than a top private jet, and you can’t buy one. [1:02](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=62) Can't buy one? First, see how amazing it is. [1:05](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=65) What does it do? Etch silicon wafers. Can't you use a knife? [1:09](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=69) Hair is 10,000 times thicker than this circuit. What knife could work? [1:12](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=72) Then what do you use? Light. What light? [1:14](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=74) Laser tin droplets, flatten them, then blast them apart, firing 50,000 times a second to make EUV light, which can’t even pass through air. H-hit tin droplets? [1:21](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=81) Even crazier, the mirrors inside are so flat, Scaled up to Germany's size, the highest bump would be under 0.1 mm. Are you kidding me? [1:28](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=88) And that’s just etching one layer. A chip has to stack dozens of layers, with a layer error under 1/10,000 of a hair's width. What if it's off? [1:35](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=95) If it's off, the wafer is scrap. Then can’t you fix it? No, there’s no eraser for this. You can only throw it away. [1:41](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=101) Just throw it out? Hence the term yield, with a new process, few chips per wafer work. You must spend big to fix it. [1:47](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=107) No wonder it's so pricey. So next comes the graphics card? [1:50](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=110) Not so fast. You still need packaging, memory, and fans, and at 700 watts, it's a furnace. [1:56](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=116) Even if you manage to make it all, then it’ll work, right? [1:58](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=118) The deadliest part is this: You think NVIDIA sells graphics cards, but it sells a whole ecosystem. What ecosystem? [2:03](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=123) Millions of developers spent nearly 20 years coding for it, No matter how powerful a card you build yourself, the programs still won’t run, Like building a car on someone else's road. [2:13](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=133) Can’t you do it yourself? One firm designs, one makes the software, one makes the machine, Materials come from suppliers worldwide. No country can provide them all. [2:21](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=141) So if you can't buy them? You have the blueprints, the workers, the sand, but you can't make it. That's being choked. [2:27](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=147) You're blocked not by metal, but by that beam of light, a whole chain. [2:30](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=150) What happens if one link breaks? Plants worth tens of billions, and R&D worth billions, all sit waiting. [2:36](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=156) So, should we take it apart? Yes. Take apart a plane or a tank, and you can see and touch the parts. [2:41](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=161) Take apart a graphics card, and all you learn is what it looks like. [2:44](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=164) Then what do we do? From sand to software, we have to master every link ourselves, There's no shortcut, but lots of people are already working on it. [2:52](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=172) I used to think it was a circuit board, but now I know that something the size of a postage stamp holds humanity's most advanced industry. [2:58](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=178) When do you think domestic GPUs will catch up? [3:00](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/pqLKrHMdLqrt/en/why-can-t-china-copy-nvidia-gpus-to-make-its-own-graphics-cards?t=180) Talk in comments.