Nvidia has told some cloud customers to take on less business from Chinese companies, according to The Information. The report cites three people familiar with the matter. The guidance is meant to push cloud providers, including Nvidia-backed neoclouds, toward a more diverse customer mix.
The directive is not mandatory. It applies to future contracts, not existing deals. Cloud customers are also being asked to disclose the identity of the end users accessing the chips. The Financial Times reports that the instruction was communicated verbally through sales representatives and regional teams.
The move targets a gap in U.S. export controls. The rules restrict chip shipments but generally do not cover remote access through cloud services. That allows Chinese AI developers to use advanced Nvidia chips by renting compute capacity at data centers abroad, without importing the hardware.
U.S. authorities had been looking into Chinese AI companies accessing such chips through foreign data centers. The report says this followed allegations involving Moonshot AI, the developer behind the Kimi chatbot.