China Keeps Making End Runs Around America’s Chip Export Controls: REPORT

Chinese AI lab Moonshot AI may have accessed Nvidia’s most advanced chips this summer by renting servers through another company, despite US export controls. The report has renewed attention in Congress to how Chinese firms can obtain advanced computing power and whether the rules need tightening.

Documents filed with Chinese regulators said Moonshot signed an August contract for nearly three dozen servers valued at about $65 million (£51 million), but the company disputed the documents and said it had no business relationship with Lingmeixin or knowledge of related financing. The report could not confirm whether a required US licence was obtained, and the documents stopped naming Moonshot after it was contacted. Senators Jim Banks and Elizabeth Warren urged Congress to close access routes through legislation in the defence bill; foreign cloud services are not covered by the same export rules.