Chinese tech giants move training on AI models overseas to access Nvidia chips, FT reports

(Reuters) – Top Chinese companies are training their artificial intelligence models overseas to gain access to Nvidia’s chips and avoid U.S. measures aimed at curbing their progress in cutting-edge technologies, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

Alibaba and ByteDance are among the tech companies training their new large language models in Southeast Asian data centers, the report said⁠, citing two people “with direct knowledge of the subject.”

Reuters could not immediately verify this information. Nvidia declined to comment on the report.

According to the report, there has been a steady increase in training at offshore locations after the United States decided to restrict sales of the H20 chip in April.

Chinese companies rely on leases for overseas data centers owned and operated by non-Chinese entities, the newspaper said, noting that DeepSeek, which amassed a large stockpile of Nvidia chips before U.S. export bans, was an exception with its model being trained domestically.

Deepseek is also collaborating with domestic chipmakers led by Huawei, to optimize and develop the next generation of Chinese AI chips, FT added.

Alibaba, ByteDance⁠, DeepSeek and Huawei did not respond to requests for comment.

‌(Reporting by Shivani Tanna in Bengaluru;‌ editing by Rashmi Aich)