CNBC: Moonshot AI, the Chinese lab behind Kimi, has sought to rent Nvidia Blackwell chips in European data centers.

It discussed deals with neoclouds, non-Chinese GPU rental firms that can buy the hardware.

U.S. export controls bar shipping those chips to China but don’t broadly cover renting them from servers abroad.

The White House accused Moonshot in July of using the same route in Thailand, and a source said the European talks came afterward.

One person described clusters of 8,000 or more Blackwell GPUs, sought mainly for serving Kimi to users.

Under one proposed lease, Moonshot would pay 30% to 50% more upfront than a non-Chinese renter, cushioning neoclouds if Washington bans remote access.

Nvidia reportedly told cloud providers that on new contracts, at least 51% of services must go to non-Chinese customers.

That cap still leaves 49% for Chinese buyers, letting a large European neocloud rent Moonshot 8,000 GPUs.