China firms may route Nvidia chips
Reports suggest Chinese companies like ByteDance are finding workarounds to access Nvidia’s top AI chips via intermediaries in Malaysia — a sign that export controls are being circumvented through regional channels reported. The coverage underscores porous enforcement and the persistence of demand for cutting-edge accelerators.
WSJ sources say ByteDance arranged access through Southeast Asian cloud operator Aolani Cloud to deploy about 500 Nvidia Blackwell systems in Malaysia — roughly 36,000 B200 accelerators in total. tomshardware.com Those servers are reported to be purchased via system integrator Aivres and will be formally owned and operated by Aolani Cloud, with the hardware bill estimated above US$2.5 billion. tomshardware.com Nvidia told reporters it does not object to companies using GPU clusters outside China so long as shipments and operations comply with U.S. export rules, a position cited by industry outlets. tomshardware.com Public reporting notes Aolani previously leased Nvidia H100 systems to ByteDance in February 2025, indicating an ongoing supplier relationship that predates the Blackwell build-out. greyjournal.net U.S. regulators tightened controls with an interim final rule on Jan. 15, 2025 aimed at closing routing loopholes for high-performance AI accelerators, a policy backdrop cited by analysts discussing the Malaysia arrangement. investing.com
