Nvidia denies adding hacker-friendly features to its graphics cards

After Beijing authorities summoned Nvidia to discuss what it deemed serious security vulnerabilities, the existence of Nvidia spyware, backdoors, and kill switches on Nvidia graphics cards has been called into question. Nvidia has since firmly denied that such controls exist, and further stated that such controls should never exist.

While it's reassuring to hear that Nvidia won't be adding these vulnerabilities to its GPUs, some of which are featured on our best graphics card buying guide, how did we get to this point? Well, the US government has a long and difficult history when it comes to encryption and security on electronic devices, with notable examples including Apple and Google encryption methods preventing access to smartphone data.

More recently, US lawmakers introduced the Chip Security Act in May 2025. This bill will, if passed, compel Nvidia and other chip manufacturers to include tracking technology to prevent chips from being illegally exported. Further security measures could be demanded, including backdoors and remote kill switches, though no such requirements are listed on the bill at present.

So how does China fit into this? The US banned exports of advanced computer chips to China in the name of national security concerns. In response, Nvidia created the new H20 chip, which is intended solely for the Chinese market, and complies with said restrictions. This, in turn, has sparked concerns in China as Chinese-specific chips could create major vulnerabilities in Chinese Nvidia chips if the Chip Security Act were passed and later expanded.

Generally speaking, regardless of the intent, backdoors, kill switches, and spyware all represent a double-edged sword. While kill switches might allow an operator to deactivate a GPU remotely if it found the GPU was, for example, exported illegally, a hacker could just as easily deactivate a GPU and maliciously render it useless. Meanwhile, a backdoor might allow an operator to extract data, such as location information, when it comes to export restrictions, but it could also enable bad-faith actors to acquire and abuse user data.

For this reason, as virtually any cybersecurity specialist would likely say, the introduction of backdoors or kill switches would create unnecessary vulnerabilities, no matter how many security layers are put into place.

Nvidia has strongly and in no uncertain terms stated that "Nvidia GPUs do not and should not have kill switches and backdoors." Nvidia's blog post repeatedly points out that backdoors and kill switches would undermine digital security, providing hackers and hostile actors with vulnerabilities that could be easily exploited. Nvidia, in what looks like a jab at US lawmakers, pointed out that the NSA's own Clipper Chip was a historical lesson that highlighted the fundamental flaws in introducing backdoors to encryption methods.

On the subject of kill switches, Nvidia stated that it has "always supported open, transparent software that helps customers get the most from their GPU-powered systems" and that hardwiring a kill switch into its chips would contravene that ideology. A kill switch would in fact create "a permanent flaw beyond user control, and an open invitation for disaster."

We couldn't agree more, and the introduction of such mechanisms would irreparably damage trust in Nvidia's brand.

While lawmakers and chipmakers debate the future of hardware security, gamers can still enjoy cutting-edge tech today, and maybe even win the best graphics card from our buying guide in this RTX 5090 giveaway.

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