China’s artificial intelligence research institute “Moonshot AI” accused of access by the White House Nvidia Companies that store advanced chips in remote locations in East Asia are seeking access to the chips through data centers in Europe, sources told CNBC.
A deal is being discussed this year for Moonshot to lease capacity from NeoCloud, which hosts Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs), at facilities in Europe, four people familiar with the matter said. They requested anonymity because they were discussing personal information.
With Nvidia holding a virtual monopoly on the most powerful chips, U.S. export controls have become a key tool in Washington’s efforts to maintain an edge over China in the AI race. U.S. AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic are locked in a training and price war with Chinese developers, including Moonshot AI, which makes the Kimi family of models.
Moonshot is considering leasing capacity powered by Nvidia’s Blackwell system, an advanced chip currently subject to export restrictions that effectively ban imports into China, three sources told CNBC.
The White House announced in July that China’s AI research lab had accessed Nvidia’s Blackwell chips through a facility in Thailand.
U.S. export regulations restrict the shipment of Nvidia’s cutting-edge chips to China, but loopholes exist for remote access through overseas data centers. Current law does not give regulators broad powers to regulate companies’ access to these chips through cloud services hosted overseas.
Moonshot, Nvidia, the White House, the US Department of Commerce, the Chinese Embassy in the UK and the Foreign Office did not respond to requests for comment.
Chinese developers have made notable improvements in their capabilities over the past six months, and greater access to Nvidia chips could put further pressure on U.S. rivals.
JINAN, CHINA – JULY 17: In this photo illustration, Kimi K3 logo is displayed on a smartphone screen in Jinan, Shandong, China on July 17, 2026. (Photo courtesy of VCG/VCG, Getty Images)
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When leasing Nvidia computing power in Europe, Chinese AI companies typically rent capacity from neocloud or data center operators outside China, where they can buy advanced chips.
Two of the sources said Moonshot was interested in leasing capacity for inference clusters in Europe to provide models to end users. One of the officials said he was also aware of interest in clusters for training.
One source said talks are underway to enable Moonshot rental access to a cluster of more than 8,000 Blackwell GPUs hosted in the region. They said China’s AI research institute is “very aggressive” in pursuing more computing power.
One person familiar with the matter told CNBC that talks about securing Moonshot Computing in Europe began after the White House announced it would go through Thailand. Moonshot did not comment at the time.
Competition for computing power
Founded in 2023, Beijing-based Moonshot AI is one of China’s leading model builders. Moonshot released a new model in July that it said has closed the gap with major systems built by Anthropic and OpenAI.
This model became significantly popular as a cheaper alternative to American products. Chinese AI models will see a surge in global adoption in 2026 due to improved functionality and lower costs than their US competitors.
Around the time Kim K3 was released, Moonshot said it had paused new subscriptions to prioritize computing for current members because demand had exceeded its capacity. “We are adding capacity as quickly as possible and plan to reopen new subscription spots in batches,” the company said in a LinkedIn post.
AI computing leasing is a fast-growing industry, where customers or off-takers typically acquire capacity for a fee and pay an upfront fee equal to a percentage of the lifetime contract value to secure the contract.
Moonshot was offered 30% to 50% more upfront than a non-Chinese buyer, one of the sources said.
Contracts with Chinese customers could be more favorable up front as neocloud and financial companies seek to avoid a possible ban on future remote access contracts.
political pressure
In Washington, lawmakers are proposing the Remote Access Security Act (RASA), which would expand U.S. export controls to include cloud-based access to critical hardware and software. It passed the House in January but has not yet passed the Senate.
The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that the semiconductor giant has told cloud providers that sell access to its chips that they must sell at least 51% of their services to non-Chinese customers.
Asked about the report earlier this week, an NVIDIA spokesperson said, “The United States cannot win the AI race unless the U.S. AI infrastructure wins globally. If the world’s cloud relies on foreign-made chips, then the model and application layers will be foreign-made as well.”
Nvidia said in August that the U.S. government had allowed it to sell some of its previous generation H200 AI chips, but “such sales were restricted” by the Chinese government, which is seeking to grow its domestic chipmaker by restricting access to Nvidia chips.
