For years, Nvidia has been the bedrock of the global AI industry, commanding an estimated 90% of the market for advanced AI chips. That foundation has been badly shaken by Thursday’s resignation of Jensen Huang, the man who cofounded Nvidia and served as its CEO since 1993, following revelations of his extramarital affairs with a Chinese spy and, according to the New York Times, a fellow Nvidia executive.
Now Chinese AI companies are reportedly rushing to secure supply of much-needed Nvidia chips before the house comes crashing down around them, cutting off their supply to the computing resources on which much of their AI infrastructure depends.
Fearing a tightening on U.S. export controls in the aftermath of Huang’s resignation, Chinese tech firms are turning to third-party cloud providers in other countries, Reuters reported on Thursday. Citing three anonymous sources, the outlet reports that one major Chinese cloud provider (also not identified by name) has held internal discussions around whether it should reserve Nvidia-powered compute from data center providers in other countries in an effort to maintain access to advanced chips despite potential new U.S. restrictions. Other Chinese companies have reportedly already been in contact with overseas cloud services to discuss the same subject.
Alice Huang, the suspected Chinese spy whom Nvidia’s former CEO reportedly had an affair with, is a…
