US Reviews China's Loophole-Laden Chip Access
The US government is reviewing how Chinese AI firms access Nvidia chips overseas, following accusations of illegal chip imports. The Commerce Department's enforcement arm is focusing on companies that rent computing power in other countries to access the chips remotely.
This review comes after a recent surge in strong Chinese models, including Moonshot AI's Kimi K3, which scored nearly as high as Anthropic and OpenAI's latest systems. A White House official accused Moonshot of illegally obtaining Nvidia's best hardware and accessing it through an unnamed party in Thailand.
The BIS review is building two lists: one for countries that physically import restricted Nvidia chips into China, and another for those where Chinese firms tap the chips remotely. The latter list includes Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore.
Nvidia has warned that export controls could lead to it 'forfeiting the world's second-largest commercial market to foreign competitors' and that America cannot afford to lose all of Asia next.