On Thursday, Nov. 13, The Wall Street Journal published an investigative report revealing that a Chinese AI company, through a multi-country transaction chain, acquired about 2,300 of Nvidia’s most advanced AI chips and deployed them at a data center in Jakarta, Indonesia. The entire operation involved U.S. companies, China-linked firms, an Indonesian telecom operator, and Chinese university researchers—highlighting how institutions tied to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can circumvent U.S. tech restrictions worldwide.
U.S. President Donald Trump has explicitly opposed Nvidia selling high-end AI chips to China, meaning Chinese firms cannot purchase them directly. But the investigation shows that these cutting-edge chips still ended up in the hands of a Shanghai-based AI company closely connected to Chinese universities.
A four-step cross-border chain
1. Nvidia sells chips to a US partner with China ties
Nvidia sold the chips to partners including Silicon Valley–based Aivres. One-third of Aivres’ parent company is owned by Chinese tech giant Inspur. In 2023, the U.S. government blacklisted Inspur for involvement in military supercomputing.
U.S. export controls bar Nvidia from dealing directly with Inspur, but do not cover U.S.-registered subsidiaries like Aivres.
2. Aivres finds a buyer in Indonesia
Sources said that in mid-2024, Aivres struck a deal with Indonesian telecom provider Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, which bought 32 server racks equipped with Nvidia Blackwell-series GB200 processors. Each rack contains 72 chips, totaling around 2,300.
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These chips would normally fall under strict U.S. export limits, but because they were sold to an Indonesian company—a non-restricted country—no laws were violated.
3. The Indonesian buyer secures a Chinese client
Sources say Indosat moved forward only after securing a Chinese customer with Aivres’ help: the Shanghai AI startup Infinite Light-Year (INF Tech). Its founder, Qi Yuan, previously led AI research at Fudan University, and Fudan representatives joined negotiations.
Though the contracting entity is private, its ties to China’s academic and tech ecosystem are strong.
4. Chips to be used for AI training in finance and medicine
The servers have already arrived at the Indonesian facility and are being installed. Sources say Infinite Light-Year plans to use the computing power to develop financial models and AI systems for drug discovery.
US national security concerns
Current and former U.S. national security officials warned that although such arrangements don’t violate existing law, they may open the door for Beijing to leverage “military-civil fusion” strategies to access commercial technology. Even if Chinese firms claim “commercial use,” they cannot guarantee freedom from government demands.
Former U.S. export-control official Thea Kendler said that if the Biden administration’s earlier, stricter rules had been implemented, the U.S. could have conducted additional vetting of the Indonesian buyer and its intended use. Those rules were never enacted.
She added that under current systems, companies must perform their own due diligence—but given China’s military-civil fusion, this approach cannot fully prevent Chinese entities from exploiting loopholes to obtain U.S. advanced tech.
Nvidia responded that it audits its partners for compliance and supports policies ensuring the U.S. maintains AI leadership. A spokesperson said some restrictions introduced under Biden raised industry concerns, as they could slow innovation and give foreign competitors an edge.
Public records show Infinite Light-Year was founded in 2021. Founder Qi Yuan was born in China, holds U.S. citizenship, earned a PhD at MIT, and was one of Alibaba’s earliest machine-learning scientists.
The company has received some Alibaba investment and is seeking data-center partners in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand to avoid tightening U.S. tech restrictions.
Earlier, on Nov. 2, Trump said in a CBS 60 Minutes interview aboard Air Force One that Nvidia’s next-generation Blackwell chips would be “for American companies only” and would not be open to China or other foreign countries.
U.S. House China Select Committee Chairman John Moolenaar warned that allowing the CCP access to Blackwell chips would be “no different from giving Iran weapons-grade uranium.”
By Gao Yun
