Nvidia can’t sell its top-tier AI chips in China, which is a problem for Nvidia $NVDA ( ▼ 1.81% ) and for the country’s tech giants trying to stay competitive. According to the Financial Times, companies like Alibaba and ByteDance are now training their newest large language models in data centers across Southeast Asia to get around US export restrictions.
Singapore and Malaysia have become hot spots for these offshore clusters, many equipped with Nvidia’s latest chip architecture. One major exception is DeepSeek, which is still training inside China after reportedly stockpiling Nvidia hardware before the ban kicked in.
Nvidia shares jumped last week after reports that the Trump administration is considering allowing the company to sell its high-powered Hopper chips to China, a move that would loosen one of the most significant constraints in the global AI race.