“Nvidia asks data center operators to ‘reduce transactions with China’”

FT report… Verbal instructions to sell at least 51% of data center services to non-Chinese companies

Blocking Chinese technology companies' bypass access to U.S. high-tech chips... Southeast Asia data center industry in ‘emergency’

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Mina Ryu = The British Financial Times (FT) reported on the 3rd (local time) that Nvidia requested data center operators doing business with the company to reduce transactions with Chinese customers.

The FT evaluated this as a measure that will make it more difficult for China to catch up as the competition for artificial intelligence (AI) hegemony between the United States and China intensifies.

The FT reported, citing five sources familiar with the situation, that Nvidia had notified its data center customers in recent months that they would have to sell at least 51% of their services to non-Chinese companies in the future. This is a restriction that has never existed before.

It is known that these instructions were delivered verbally through Nvidia's sales organization and regional representatives, rather than in writing. It applies to customers not only in Asia but also around the world, and only applies to new contracts, not existing contracts.

In a related statement, NVIDIA said that data centers and clouds built with American chips are the basis for American AI companies to compete in the global market, and that it is the United States' long-standing policy to expand its infrastructure around the world.

Chinese technology companies, which have difficulty obtaining cutting-edge American chips directly, have secured the computing power necessary for AI model learning by borrowing overseas data centers, but with Nvidia's latest move, even this is not expected to be easy in the future.

The U.S. Donald Trump administration is cracking down on brokers who have fostered the black market for Nvidia AI chips in China while also trying to block Chinese companies' access through overseas data center leases.

The FT pointed out that the cloud service industry is in an awkward position due to Nvidia's demands.

One Singaporean company told the FT: "It's difficult to find enough customers outside the US and outside of China. If the measures are strictly enforced, it will definitely hurt our business." The newspaper analyzed that Chinese technology companies are considered the largest customers of data centers in Southeast Asia and elsewhere.