Nvidia orders cloud partners to limit China exposure in future contracts: FT
According to the Financial Times, Nvidia is requiring its cloud computing clients to sell at least 51% of services to non-Chinese companies in new contracts.
U.S. chipmaking giant Nvidia is reportedly ordering its data center partners to scale back work with Chinese customers. According to a Financial Times report published on Tuesday, which cited five people with knowledge of the matter, Nvidia's new rules require its cloud computing clients to sell at least 51% of their services to non-Chinese companies.
The report states that these new restrictions apply only to future contracts and do not affect existing agreements. Nvidia neither confirmed nor denied the report to AFP but issued a statement saying, "Data centers and clouds built on American chips are the foundation that American model and application makers need to compete worldwide." The statement added, "America cannot win the AI race unless America's AI infrastructure wins worldwide—if the world's clouds rely on foreign-made chips, the model and application layers will be foreign-built as well."
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said she was not aware of the report when asked about it. "As a matter of principle, we consistently hope that all parties can provide a fair, transparent and nondiscriminatory business environment for companies from all countries, including Chinese companies," she said.
China and the United States are locked in a race for dominance in the fast-moving artificial intelligence sector, with recent months seeing mutual accusations of stealing AI technologies and jeopardizing security. Nvidia, the world's most valuable company, benefits from the global drive to build data centers packed with specialist computer chips and other hardware that runs AI systems.