Avoiding U.S. export controls, the dark side of China’s AI startup turns to Europe to rent Huida chip computing power

Sources told U.S. financial media CNBC that Dark Side of the Moon, a Chinese AI startup that has been accused by the White House of using advanced Nvidia chips remotely in East Asia, is trying to obtain these chips through data centers in Europe instead.

CNBC reported that four people familiar with the matter said that Dark Side of the Moon was discussing deals this year to lease computing power from emerging cloud players (neoclouds) in European facilities, which are equipped with Nvidia graphics processors (GPUs). The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing non-public information.

Nvidia has a near-monopoly position in the high-end chip market, making U.S. export controls an important tool for Washington to maintain its competitive advantage over China's AI. American AI companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic are currently engaged in model training and price wars with Chinese developers, including Dark Side of the Moon, which developed the Kimi series of models.

Three sources told CNBC that Dark Side of the Moon was seeking to lease computing power provided by Nvidia's Blackwell systems. Blackwell is Nvidia's advanced chip, which is currently subject to relevant export control restrictions.

The White House said in July that Dark Side of the Moon used Nvidia Blackwell chips remotely through a facility in Thailand.

U.S. export controls restrict the export of Nvidia's most advanced chips to China, but companies can still use these chips remotely through overseas data centers, creating a loophole. Current law does not give regulators broad authority to control companies' use of these chips through overseas cloud services.

Dark Side of the Moon, Nvidia, the White House, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Chinese Embassy in the United Kingdom and the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to requests for comment.

In the past six months, the technical capabilities of Chinese AI developers have improved significantly, and if they can obtain more rights to use Nvidia chips, it will put greater pressure on U.S. competitors.

If Chinese AI companies want to rent the computing power of Nvidia chips in Europe, they usually rent computing resources from emerging non-Chinese cloud service providers or data center operators who can purchase high-end chips.

Two sources said that Dark Side of the Moon intends to rent computing clusters in Europe to perform inference work, that is, to provide model services to end users. One of the sources said they had also learned that Dark of the Moon was interested in training computing clusters.

A source said that the two parties have negotiated relevant arrangements, including allowing Dark Side of the Moon to rent a locally located computing cluster equipped with at least 8,000 Nvidia Blackwell GPUs. The person described the Chinese AI startup as "very aggressive" in seeking more computing power.

A person familiar with the matter told CNBC that since the White House alleged that Dark Side of the Moon obtained computing power through Thailand, relevant people have been negotiating to obtain computing power in Europe. The Dark Side of the Moon did not respond to requests for comment at the time. (Compiled by: Chen Yuting) 1151106