How a Chinese AI Firm Leveraged Nvidia’s Top Chips through Indonesia

In a discreet area of South Jakarta, a new data center houses around 2,300 of Nvidia’s cutting-edge AI chips. While officially part of an Indonesian project, these chips will drive AI models for a Shanghai startup, showcasing Chinese firms’ ability to obtain US technology without direct imports, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The journey of these processors to Jakarta involved regions like California, Shanghai, and regulatory gray areas, highlighting the conflict between Washington’s efforts to restrict access to advanced AI hardware from China and the tech industry’s resilience in selling top products.
To navigate the restrictions on directly exporting powerful semiconductors to China since 2022, Nvidia partners with companies like Aivres, an ally based in Silicon Valley. Despite being affiliated with a blacklisted Chinese firm, Aivres remains a close collaborator and continues to receive Nvidia hardware.
In mid-2024, Aivres engaged with Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, a major Indonesian telecom player, to acquire 32 server racks equipped with Nvidia’s latest GB200 systems for about $100 million. These racks house a total of approximately 2,300 high-end processors, which will be used by a Shanghai startup, INF Tech, for AI applications.
INF Tech, founded by an American citizen of Chinese descent, rents computing power from Indosat without physically transferring the chips to China. By conducting AI model training through remote data centers, INF Tech complies with US export regulations and focuses on financial and healthcare AI solutions.
Legal experts confirm that the current arrangement meets export control laws, as the chips are utilized in Indonesia and not for military purposes. However, some US security officials express concerns that such transactions could undermine the regulations, especially considering potential military applications in the future under Beijing’s civil-military fusion policy.
The Jakarta project signifies Indosat’s strategic move into AI services beyond traditional telecom offerings and INF Tech’s expansion plans in Southeast Asia. The intricate ecosystem of AI hardware access reflects a broader global struggle for dominance in technology innovation and control over computing resources.