Alibaba, ByteDance and other major Chinese tech companies are quietly relocating large-scale AI training to overseas data centers to retain access to Nvidia hardware restricted inside China, the Financial Times reports.
Chinese technology groups are increasingly moving their model-training workloads to Southeast Asia as U.S. export controls continue to limit the availability of Nvidia’s high-performance chips—particularly the H20 series. According to FT sources, companies like Alibaba and ByteDance have begun relying on foreign facilities to train large language models (LLMs), accelerating demand for infrastructure in Singapore and Malaysia.
Operators of Singapore-based data centers say that training on Nvidia H20 chips is still allowed, provided the hardware is owned by non-Chinese entities, keeping it outside the scope of U.S. export rules. This loophole created a surge in offshore compute capacity after the Trump administration tightened restrictions on advanced AI components.
At the same time, China’s most prominent openly available LLMs—Qwen and Doubao—have climbed to the top of developer rankings over the past year, highlighting the intensity of the country’s AI race.
One major exception is DeepSeek, which continues to train its models domestically. The company reportedly stockpiled a large Nvidia cluster in advance and is now working with Chinese hardware makers, including Huawei, to optimize the next generation of homegrown AI processors.
While Chinese firms increasingly rely on foreign compute for training, many are shifting inference—the process of serving AI responses—to domestic chips. FT notes that inference demand is growing even faster than training, giving companies an opportunity to reduce dependence on imported processors.
However, training on customer data remains confined to China because local regulations prohibit the export of personal information.
FT also reports that offshore data centers help Chinese cloud providers serve international clients as they push to expand market share outside their home territory. As a result, Alibaba, ByteDance and others are scaling infrastructure not only in Southeast Asia but also in the Middle East and other rapidly growing regions.
According to the report, Alibaba, ByteDance, DeepSeek, Huawei and Nvidia did not comment on the situation at the time of publication.
Ukraine, meanwhile, recently announced plans to build its own AI infrastructure with support from Nvidia.
