How some Chinese AI companies use brokers to access top AI chips despite US sanctions, sometimes using cryptocurrency smart contracts to anonymously make orders
SINGAPORE—Chinese artificial-intelligence developers have found a way to use the most advanced American chips without bringing them to China.
Context & Ripple Effects
This report extends coverage of an underground seller network exploiting supply-chain blind spots: access to advanced chips can be separated from delivery into China through brokers and overseas arrangements.
It also sits alongside reports that Chinese firms have used cloud intermediaries, including rented Nvidia GPU capacity through Oracle, rather than relying solely on locally held hardware. The recurring issue is whether restrictions on chip transfers can constrain access to computing capacity when procurement, ownership and use are split across parties and locations.
First-order effects
- Chinese AI developers can obtain or use top American AI chips without importing them into China, while brokers become the operational link between buyers and hardware access.
- Cryptocurrency smart contracts can obscure ordering identities, making customer-level tracing harder for the parties responsible for compliance and enforcement.
Second-order effects
- Export-control enforcement shifts toward vetting brokers, end users and overseas hosting or colocation arrangements, rather than focusing only on shipments crossing into China.
- Intermediary access channels become more valuable for Chinese AI developers, reinforcing the alternative to direct chip purchases already visible in GPU-rental workarounds.
Third-order effects
- If such arrangements persist, effective compute restrictions will increasingly depend on control of services, intermediaries and beneficial-user verification—not only on restrictions tied to physical chip destination.
- The pattern points to a more fragmented AI infrastructure market in which access is brokered across jurisdictions; its durability will depend on whether enforcement can identify and close these recurring channels.
The trend: AI export controls are evolving into a contest over access to compute, as firms route around hardware-trade limits through brokers, remote capacity and cross-border infrastructure.