Nvidia Sets Reported 51% Non-Chinese Cloud Services Threshold

Nvidia has told some cloud and data-center partners to ensure that at least 51% of their computing services go to non-Chinese customers under guidance for future business, according to people familiar with the matter. Existing agreements are exempt, and the reported guidance is not mandatory. The instruction, communicated verbally through sales representatives and regional teams, is intended to shape the customer mix of providers that rent out Nvidia chips. The precise scope of covered partners and services has not been established in written terms, and Nvidia has not confirmed the 51% figure. Nvidia said U.S. policy encourages cloud providers to build on American technology and serve customers from everywhere they can. That statement did not confirm the reported threshold. China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, Mao Ning, said she was unaware of the report and called for a fair, transparent and nondiscriminatory business environment for companies from every country. The guidance addresses a route by which Chinese companies can access advanced computing capacity without importing chips. Cloud providers outside China can host Nvidia hardware and rent computing power remotely to...