Moonshot AI Seeks Nvidia Blackwell Access via European Data Centers to Bypass US Curbs
China's leading artificial intelligence lab Moonshot AI is seeking access to advanced Nvidia chips through data centers located in Europe, aiming to navigate around U.S. export restrictions. According to a CNBC report published Thursday, four people familiar with the matter stated that discussions took place this year regarding Moonshot renting capacity from neocloud providers hosting Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) at European facilities. The sources requested anonymity due to the private nature of the information.
Nvidia's effective monopoly over the most powerful chips has made U.S. export controls a key instrument in Washington's effort to maintain its advantage over China in the AI race. American AI labs such as OpenAI and Anthropic are engaged in training and pricing battles with Chinese developers, including Moonshot AI, which produces the Kimi family of models. While U.S. law restricts the shipment of Nvidia's most advanced chips to China, remote access via overseas data centers offers a loophole, as current regulations do not grant authorities broad power to control corporate access to these chips through cloud services hosted abroad.
Moonshot was interested in leasing capacity powered by Nvidia's Blackwell systems, which are currently subject to export controls banning their import into China. Two sources indicated that Moonshot focused on clusters for inference—serving models to end users—in Europe, while another source noted interest in training clusters as well. One source described talks about arrangements where Moonshot would rent access to clusters of 8,000 or more Blackwell GPUs hosted in the region, characterizing the Chinese AI lab as "very aggressive" in its pursuit of computing power.
To lease Nvidia computing power in Europe, a Chinese AI company typically rents capacity from non-Chinese neoclouds or data center operators capable of purchasing advanced chips. One source mentioned a proposal for Moonshot to pay 30% to 50% more upfront than a non-Chinese offtaker would. Arrangements with Chinese customers can be more lucrative upfront, as neoclouds and financing firms look to hedge against a potential future ban on remote access agreements.
This development follows a July statement by the White House alleging that Moonshot had accessed Nvidia's Blackwell chips via a facility in Thailand, a claim Moonshot did not comment on at the time. Additionally, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday that Nvidia told cloud providers they must sell at least 51% of their services to non-Chinese customers. An Nvidia spokesperson responded: "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."
Sources:CNBC