Exclusive-Chinese AI firms rush to secure Nvidia chip capacity as spy scandal stirs fear of US curbs

Chinese AI companies are scrambling to secure Nvidia-powered computing capacity outside China due to concerns that a scandal involving Nvidia's CEO, Jensen Huang, could lead the US to tighten restrictions on their use of advanced processors, according to three people familiar with the matter. The issue highlights the potential for a gap in US export controls on Nvidia's most advanced artificial intelligence chips, which are currently restricted from export to China.

While major Chinese cloud providers are exploring opportunities to reserve overseas Nvidia chip capacity, smaller AI labs are also considering similar steps, including approaching Southeast Asian data centre operators for reserved computing power. The controversy surrounding Huang stems from allegations that his wife, Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based cloud-computing firm Megaspeed, was a Chinese intelligence asset.

If these allegations prove true, they could add political momentum to the Remote Access Security Act (RASA), a bill passed by the US House of Representatives in January that would give the Commerce Department authority to regulate remote cloud access to restricted technology. Despite US prosecutors charging Super Micro Computer co-founder Wally Liaw and two others with diverting Nvidia servers to China, both Nvidia and Megaspeed have denied any wrongdoing.