Moonshot AI Used About 20,000 NVIDIA Chips Via Alibaba, Bloomberg Reports
The report shows Chinese AI firms can access restricted NVIDIA chips through rental deals, complicating U.S. export controls and raising questions about AI infrastructure investment.
Reporting from 1 source: GIGAZINE.
Bloomberg reported that Moonshot AI signed a contract with Alibaba to use approximately 20,000 NVIDIA chips for its Kimi series AI models. The chips are reportedly older Hopper architecture, possibly H200, though Alibaba denied supplying H200s. The news follows Kimi K3's release, which scored higher than GPT-5.6 Sol and Claude Fable 5 in some benchmarks.
Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the business of Moonshot AI and Alibaba, reported that Moonshot AI has a contract with Alibaba to use about 20,000 NVIDIA chips. Sources say these chips are of the older Hopper architecture, and multiple sources said the contract concerns the H200, the most powerful Hopper accelerator. Alibaba denied supplying H200s, calling the allegation completely unfounded.
The report follows the July 2026 release of Kimi K3, a 2.8-trillion-parameter model that scored higher than GPT-5.6 Sol and Claude Fable 5 in some benchmarks. The model is open and said to be cost-efficient. A person familiar with Moonshot's procurement strategy acknowledged a route to access Blackwell architecture via Southeast Asia, without specifying whether through legal rentals or direct purchases.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.