China Seeks Nvidia Chips through Data Centre Renting

[ABS News Service/13.11.2026]

Chinese AI companies are trying to rent Nvidia-powered computing capacity outside China, worried that the scandal involving the US chipmaker's CEO Jensen Huang could spur Washington to tighten restrictions on their remote use of advanced processors, three people familiar with the matter said according to a Reuters news service report.

Seeking to protect US dominance of the critical sector, Washington restricts exports to China of Nvidia's most advanced AI chips. But Chinese companies can access such processors remotely by renting computing power at data centres overseas.

The current move to secure rented capacity points to growing concern among Chinese technology companies that the gap in US export controls may now be closed.

A major Chinese cloud provider has discussed internally whether to lock in overseas Nvidia chip capacity, while some companies have contacted data-centre operators about reserving it, the people said.

The people declined to be identified, or to ?identify the cloud provider, due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Smaller AI labs are considering similar steps, including approaching major providers of rented computing power ?in Southeast Asia, two of the people said.