Nvidia halves Asian AI-chip buyer list in China crackdown

Nvidia has more than halved the number of Asian customers cleared to buy its AI chips, introducing a 'white list' of firms that passed tougher compliance checks meant to stop the processors from being diverted to China, the Financial Times reported July 14. The company has stepped up vetting in Singapore, Malaysia and Japan - with staff now visiting customers' data centers, verifying contracts and interviewing end users - and many smaller 'neo-cloud' providers that failed the initial review were dropped and must reapply. The U.S. Commerce Department is backing the effort, part of a Trump administration push to keep advanced Blackwell-class chips from reaching Chinese-linked entities through third countries.