Nvidia pushes cloud customers to cut back on China business
Nvidia pushes cloud customers to cut back on China business
Nvidia has informed some cloud customers to reduce business from Chinese companies, aiming to promote diversification of cloud service provider customers. This instruction is non-binding and only applies to future contracts, requiring customers to disclose the end-user identity of the chips. This move targets remote access loopholes in US export controls, allowing Chinese AI developers to rent Nvidia's advanced chips through overseas data centers without importing hardware, and US authorities are investigating such activities.
Nvidia has told some cloud customers to take on less business from Chinese companies. The guidance is meant to push cloud providers, including Nvidia-backed neoclouds, toward a more diverse customer mix, The Information reports, citing three people familiar with the matter.
The directive isn't mandatory and applies to future contracts, not existing deals. Cloud customers are also being asked to disclose the identity of end users accessing the chips. According to the Financial Times, the instruction was communicated verbally through sales reps and regional teams.
The move targets a gap in U.S. export controls. The rules restrict chip shipments but generally don't cover remote access through cloud services. That lets Chinese AI developers tap advanced Nvidia chips by renting compute capacity at data centers abroad, without ever importing the hardware. U.S. authorities had been looking into Chinese AI companies accessing such chips through foreign data centers after allegations surfaced involving Moonshot AI, the developer behind the Kimi chatbot.
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Source: The Decoder · the-decoder.com