White House official accuses Moonshot AI of using banned Nvidia chips via Thailand

Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said on July 22 that Chinese AI company Moonshot AI accessed restricted Nvidia GB300 chips despite US export controls.

Kratsios said Moonshot reached the Blackwell-generation processors through GB300-enabled infrastructure based in Thailand, rather than by importing the chips directly into China, a routing that would sidestep the ban on direct sales. He tied the alleged chip access to Moonshot’s use of proprietary American AI models through distillation, a technique that trains a smaller model on a larger one’s outputs, to build its Kimi K3 model.

The claim is an allegation from a senior official, not a proven finding, and no supporting evidence has been made public. Nvidia did not immediately comment, and Moonshot did not respond publicly to the accusation.

If substantiated, the account would point to a gap in how US export controls are enforced across third countries, an issue Washington has flagged as chips move through intermediaries in Southeast Asia and the Gulf. It would also sharpen scrutiny of how competitive Chinese models such as Kimi K3 are being trained.

For now the episode rests on a public statement. Whether US authorities open a formal enforcement action, or Nvidia and Moonshot rebut the routing claim, will determine if this becomes more than a war of words over restricted silicon.