A recent investigation by The Wall Street Journal found that a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company managed to gain access to Nvidia’s cutting-edge chips, which are strictly controlled by the United States, by using a four-step process through other countries.
The report published on Thursday traced a series of transactions across multiple countries, revealing that about 2,300 controlled AI chips were imported into a data center in Indonesia. The key player in this operation is a Chinese company subsidiary that is on a U.S. trade blacklist.
Due to national security concerns, the United States has prohibited the sale of Nvidia’s top AI chips to China since 2022. However, Chinese companies and organizations continue to use Nvidia’s chip products directly or indirectly through various channels.
According to The Wall Street Journal report, the Chinese entity obtained U.S. technology through four steps via other countries.
The first step involved a business partner with Chinese ties purchasing Nvidia chips.
A tech company based in Silicon Valley, Aivres, acquired a large quantity of Nvidia chips. The company has a close relationship with Nvidia and co-sponsored one of Nvidia’s most significant corporate events this year.
Chinese tech company Inspur holds one-third of Aivres’ parent company. In 2023, the U.S. government added Inspur to the national security trade blacklist, citing its involvement in developing supercomputing technology for the Chinese military. In March 2025, the U.S. put Inspur’s Taiwan subsidiary and Taiwan Inspur Research Center on the trade blacklist.
According to regulations, Nvidia cannot do business with Inspur or some of its blacklisted subsidiaries. However, the regulations do not cover entities like Aivres, a U.S. subsidiary of Inspur.
The second step was finding buyers in other countries for servers equipped with Nvidia chips.
The Wall Street Journal cited sources saying that in mid-2024, Aivres began negotiations with the cloud computing division of Indonesian telecom supplier Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison.
Subsequently, this Indonesian company purchased 32 Nvidia GB200 server racks from Aivres for around $100 million. Each server rack contained 72 of Nvidia’s advanced Blackwell chips, totaling approximately 2,300 chips.
Indosat is a joint venture between Qatar Telecom company Ooredoo and Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing’s CK Hutchison Group.
The third step involved bridging connections for the third-country company and tying it to a Chinese customer.
Sources revealed that Indosat only purchased Nvidia servers with Aivres’ help after securing a Chinese client. The client is an AI startup company called INF Tech based in Shanghai.
INF Tech’s founder, Qiyuan, leads an AI research institute at Fudan University in Shanghai. Sources disclosed that representatives from Fudan University were involved in the transaction negotiations, but ultimately, it was INF Tech that signed the computing power contract.
The fourth step was using a third country to conduct testing and research for Chinese AI.
As of October, the Nvidia servers had been delivered and were in the process of being installed, according to a source. Once operational, these servers will focus on assisting INF Tech in training AI for scientific research purposes such as finance applications and drug development.
Lawyers familiar with export control regulations stated that as long as the Chinese company does not use these chips to assist the CCP in developing military intelligence or weapons of mass destruction, it falls within the scope of compliance under current U.S. export control regulations.
However, some former and current U.S. national security officials suggest a review of such transactions. They point out that Chinese companies, even if currently engaging in commercial projects, could potentially aid military development through the CCP’s civil-military integration strategy.
Aivres did not respond to The Wall Street Journal’s request for comments. An Nvidia spokesperson mentioned that their compliance team evaluates and approves partners before they receive Nvidia products. A spokesperson from the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Export Control declined to comment on the matter.
When asked about the transaction with Indosat, INF Tech stated that they are not involved in any research with military applications and adhere to U.S. export control regulations.
Indosat stated in a statement that INF Tech has no physical contact with their chips.