Moonshot AI, a Beijing-based developer of the Kimi models, has sought access to Nvidia Blackwell chips through data centres in Europe, CNBC reported on 5 November, citing four people familiar with discussions held this year. The company would rent computing capacity from operators hosting the chips outside China. US export controls effectively bar imports of Blackwell systems into China, while current law does not give US regulators broad authority over access to those systems through overseas cloud services.
Key points
- One person familiar with the talks said arrangements for Moonshot to rent access to European clusters of 8,000 or more Blackwell GPUs had been discussed.
- Two people described interest in capacity for inference. One also knew of interest in training capacity.
- One person said a proposal involved Moonshot paying 30% to 50% more upfront than a non-Chinese customer would.
- The Remote Access Security Act, which would extend US export controls to cloud-based access, passed the House of Representatives in January but has not passed the Senate.
Moonshot’s talks covered 8,000 or more Blackwell GPUs
Three of the people familiar with the discussions said Moonshot was looking for capacity powered by Nvidia Blackwell systems. Two described its interest in inference clusters, used to run models for end users. One of those people was also aware of interest in clusters for training. One person said the arrangements discussed would give Moonshot access to 8,000 or more Blackwell graphics processing units, or GPUs, hosted in Europe. Those accounts describe discussions over rented capacity, rather than the shipment of chips to China.
For a Chinese AI company seeking this kind of capacity, the usual arrangement is to rent it from a non-Chinese cloud provider or data-centre operator able to buy the chips. The distinction matters here: the Blackwell systems would remain at European facilities, with Moonshot using computing power supplied from those sites. The US controls described in the report restrict imports of the systems into China, but do not give regulators broad authority to control that form of remote access.
Moonshot was founded in 2023 and makes the Kimi family of models. In July, it released a model that it said had narrowed the gap with leading systems from Anthropic and OpenAI. Around the same time, the company said demand had stretched its capacity and temporarily stopped taking new subscriptions so it could serve existing members. Those are Moonshot’s accounts of its model’s performance and its capacity needs, rather than independent measures of either.
The White House said in July that Moonshot had accessed Nvidia Blackwell chips through a facility in Thailand. One person familiar with the European discussions said talks about obtaining capacity there had taken place since that White House statement. The two accounts concern access from different locations, but both turn on computing power supplied from equipment hosted outside China.
A proposed premium for Moonshot’s European capacity
One person familiar with the talks said a proposal called for Moonshot to pay 30% to 50% more upfront than a non-Chinese customer would. Customers renting AI computing capacity typically pay both a fee for its use and an initial amount to secure a contract. The person described a proposed upfront payment, not a completed agreement or a price for the capacity over the life of a contract.
Cloud providers and their financiers face the possibility that future US rules could restrict remote-access agreements with Chinese customers. An earlier AI Affairs report covered a Chinese state-backed financier’s role in leases for restricted Nvidia servers. The Moonshot discussions concern another route to computing power: renting access from operators hosting Blackwell systems in Europe.
CNBC reported that Moonshot, Nvidia, the White House, the US Department of Commerce, China’s embassy in the UK and China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to its requests for comment. Nvidia has separately argued for the worldwide use of American AI infrastructure. Asked about reports concerning its sales to cloud providers, a company spokesperson said that if the world’s clouds used foreign-made chips, model and application developers would follow them.
The Remote Access Security Act’s unresolved reach
US lawmakers have proposed the Remote Access Security Act to extend export controls to cloud-based access to critical hardware and software. That would bring a means of obtaining computing power now outside regulators’ broad authority within the controls proposed by Congress. It would address a different transaction from an import: a company using restricted equipment while the equipment stays at a data centre overseas.
The distinction also runs through other reported cases involving restricted Nvidia hardware. AI Affairs previously reported a link between 32 restricted Nvidia B300 chips and China Telecom addresses. Moonshot’s reported European talks concern rented access to clusters hosted in the region. The Remote Access Security Act passed the House of Representatives in January but has not passed the Senate.
