Beijing-based artificial intelligence lab Moonshot AI has been actively negotiating to lease advanced computing clusters powered by NVIDIA Blackwell chips hosted in European data centers. Because current U.S. trade rules restrict direct physical shipments of advanced semiconductors into China, utilizing overseas cloud services functions as a workaround to acquire cutting-edge compute. Industry sources indicate that discussions involved substantial capacity including clusters of 8,000 or more Blackwell GPUs intended to support both model inference serving and training workloads. To offset potential regulatory backlash and policy risks, data center suppliers and cloud providers reportedly proposed upfront prepayments running 30% to 50% higher than standard non-Chinese commercial rates. The maneuver underscores a major enforcement gap for Washington, as current rules lack broad authority over remote cloud access to hardware abroad, fueling legislative efforts like the proposed Remote Access Security Act to close the loophole.

Full report : Kimi models developer Moonshot attempts to rent massive European GPU clusters through regional neoclouds, highlighting regulatory loopholes in remote AI infrastructure access.