엔비디아가 데이터센터 파트너들에게 중국 관련 익스포저를 줄이라고 통보했으며, 미국과 중국이 디커플링을 추진하는 가운데 중국 본토에 대한 RTX 칩 판매를 제한하고 있다.

Nvidia has told its data center partners to reduce their exposure to customers in China.

The GPU giant has told cloud computing clients to sell at least 51 percent of their services to non-Chinese companies, the Financial Times reports. Nvidia communicated the new restrictions to customers verbally, not in written documents.

The rule applies only to future contracts and does not affect existing leases. Because access to Nvidia hardware is restricted in China, many Chinese companies have leased compute capacity in Malaysia and Indonesia. Such deals could face limits under Nvidia's rules.

Local cloud providers are struggling to meet the new requirements. It is "difficult to find enough non-Chinese clients outside the US," one Singapore-based group told the FT. "If strictly implemented, it will definitely hurt business."

This week, Oracle reportedly dropped a $7bn deal with Tencent that would have given the Chinese cloud provider access to as many as 100,000 Nvidia GPUs. The deal fell apart amid pressure on Oracle from US officials and pressure on Tencent from Chinese officials to support domestic chips.

Nvidia has already more than halved the number of Asian customers authorized to buy its AI chips. This year, it created a "white list" of companies that have passed tougher compliance checks, a measure aimed at limiting the export of GPUs to China.

While B300 chips are banned from export to China, the less powerful RTX Pro 5500 workstation graphics card is cleared for shipment to the country. However, Bloomberg reports that Chinese AI developers expect to receive only one percent of the chips they have ordered in the coming months.

Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance and other Chinese AI and cloud firms have collectively ordered about six million RTX Pro 5500 chips but will receive only a few tens of thousands over the next four months.

The low shipment volume is due to capacity constraints, as Nvidia is currently ramping up production. If export controls do not change, Chinese hyperscalers estimate they could receive around 700,000 RTX Pro 5500 units by the end of 2027.

"Unfortunately, US firms continue to be restricted by a combination of outdated US export controls, which cover gaming products released nearly half a decade ago, and China's own limits on US imports," an Nvidia spokesperson told Bloomberg.

The news follows the revelation that US agencies are investigating whether Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was the victim of a Chinese spy plot, with Alice Huang (no relation to Jensen) accused of working for the Chinese state.

A Megaspeed executive has been accused of sending information to China, and the Singapore-based company has been accused of sending GPUs to China. The company has denied the allegations.