Moonshot Sought European Access to Nvidia Blackwell GPUs Amid U.S.-China Curbs

According to CNBC, Moonshot AI has discussed leasing computing capacity from European data centers equipped with Nvidia Blackwell GPUs, which are subject to U.S. export controls that effectively ban their import into China. Sources said talks included clusters of 8,000 or more GPUs, with capacity sought for inference and possibly training. The discussions took place this year, and one source said a proposal called for Moonshot to pay 30% to 50% more upfront than a non-Chinese customer. Overseas cloud access can provide a workaround to export controls, while current law does not give regulators broad authority over companies’ access to the chips through overseas cloud services.