Nvidia tells data centre clients to sell majority of services to non-Chinese buyers; company says: ‘Datacenters and clouds built on American chips are the foundation…’

Nvidia has told its data centre partners that most of their services must go to non-Chinese customers, a new rule that narrows China’s routes to advanced AI computing power, according to a Financial Times report.The chipmaker has asked cloud computing clients to sell at least 51% of their services to companies outside China, five people familiar with the matter told FT. There were no such limits earlier. The instructions were passed on verbally by Nvidia’s sales and regional teams rather than put in writing.

The rule applies to Nvidia’s clients globally, not just those in Asia, two of the sources said. It covers only future contracts, so existing leasing agreements stay as they are.