Shocker! China's Moonshot has access to top NVIDIA AI chips
What's the story
Moonshot AI, one of China's leading artificial intelligence (AI) companies, has accessed some of the most advanced chips from NVIDIA, as per Bloomberg. The move comes despite US export restrictions and ongoing investigations into such activities. The servers housing these chips were rented from Super Micro Computer, with major financial support from Lingmeixin Technology Co, according to documents filed with Beijing regulators.
Contract details
Contract to rent servers signed in August
In August, Moonshot AI signed a contract to rent 32 Super Micro Computer servers, each equipped with NVIDIA's B300 GPUs, the most powerful AI accelerators available.
The online filings valued these servers at CNY 432 million ($64.8 million) and stated they were located in China.
This raises questions about compliance with US rules that prohibit sales to the country without an explicit license.
Disputed claims
Moonshot AI denies business relationship with Lingmeixin
After Bloomberg reached out for comment, references to Moonshot were removed from the documents.
The company has been accused of training some of China's most advanced frontier models with restricted Blackwell chips.
A spokesperson for Moonshot denied any business relationship with Lingmeixin and claimed they neither participated in nor authorized related financing or guarantee arrangements.
Export restrictions
US has tried to prevent sales of NVIDIA's AI chips
The US has long tried to prevent the sale of NVIDIA's most advanced AI chips to Chinese companies.
It has also worked to dismantle a smuggling ring accused of illegally sending billions worth of NVIDIA hardware into China.
After Kimi K3's summer release, a White House official said that the start-up had accessed restricted NVIDIA hardware.
Financing details
Financing contracts submitted to database on August 6
Lingmeixin (Beijing) Technology Co, the owner of the servers, and Beijing Zhongguancun Bank Co, the financier of the purchase, signed two financing contracts on August 4.
These documents were submitted to a database maintained by China's credit agency on August 6.
However, after Bloomberg's requests for comment on November 3, documents available in this database no longer mentioned Moonshot AI.