Moonshot AI seeks European cloud capacity for Nvidia Blackwell chips, sources say

Moonshot AI, the Beijing-based developer of the Kimi family of models, has sought to rent Nvidia Blackwell computing capacity from cloud providers operating in Europe, according to four people familiar with the matter cited by CNBC. The discussions bear directly on the two pressure points now shaping the AI industry: access to advanced chips, where Nvidia holds what the reporting describes as an effective monopoly over the most powerful processors, and Washington's use of export controls to preserve its advantage in the AI race. Three of the sources said Moonshot was looking to lease capacity powered by Blackwell systems, the advanced chips that current US rules effectively bar from import into China.

The move follows an accusation rather than a court finding. In July, according to the sources, the White House said the Chinese lab had accessed Blackwell chips remotely through a facility in Thailand. Moonshot did not comment at the time. Moonshot, Nvidia, the White House, the US Department of Commerce, China's embassy in the United Kingdom and China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to requests for comment from CNBC. Viewed from Washington, the controls rest on the premise that restricting the most advanced Nvidia chips to China limits Chinese capability; the reporting notes that Chinese developers have made notable gains over the past six months and that wider access to Nvidia silicon could increase pressure on American rivals such as OpenAI and Anthropic.

The commercial shape of the proposed arrangements is specific. One source described talks covering rental of clusters of 8,000 or more Blackwell GPUs hosted in Europe, and characterised Moonshot as "very aggressive" in its pursuit of computing power. Two sources cited inference — serving models to end users — as the intended use, while one also reported interest in training clusters. Because Chinese firms typically rent from non-Chinese neoclouds or data centre operators able to buy the chips, one source said it had been proposed that Moonshot pay 30 per cent to 50 per cent more upfront than a non-Chinese offtaker would, a premium the reporting links to operators and financiers hedging against a possible future ban on remote-access agreements.

Moonshot's own trajectory explains the demand. Founded in 2023, the company released a new model in July, the Kimi K3, which it said closed the gap with systems built by Anthropic and OpenAI; Olhar Digital reports the model drew users as a cheaper alternative to US offerings. Around its release, Moonshot said demand had stretched capacity and temporarily paused new subscriptions to prioritise existing members. "We're adding capacity as fast as we can and will reopen new subscription spots in batches," the company said in a LinkedIn post. CNBC reports that Chinese AI models have surged in global adoption amid capability gains and lower costs than US rivals.

The dossier now turns on a legal gap and a legislative remedy without a timetable. Current law, the reporting states, does not give US regulators broad authority to control companies' access to chips through cloud services hosted overseas, leaving remote use of machines abroad as a loophole; one source said talks on securing Moonshot compute in Europe had taken place since the White House's July statement. In Washington, lawmakers have proposed the Remote Access Security Act to extend export controls to remote access via cloud services, but the reporting supplied does not detail its progress or any scheduled vote, and none of the parties involved has commented.