China's big tech company Tencent is using Nvidia's latest artificial intelligence (AI) chips through a data center in Japan, the Financial Times (FT) reported on the 21st. It is said to be using the Japanese data center to evade U.S. export controls on advanced semiconductor shipments to China.
Citing sources, FT said that DataSection, a Japanese company, counts Tencent as a major client at the data center it operates in Osaka. DataSection is a marketing solutions provider and launched its data center business last year. To that end, it installed 15,000 units of Nvidia's latest Blackwell-based graphics processing unit (GPU) B200 at the Osaka data center.
According to sources, a "large client" signed a $1.2 billion (about 1.77 trillion won) contract with DataSection last year and is using a significant portion of the data center's GPUs. The deal was made through a third party, and the client is Tencent, the sources said.
DataSection is said to be planning to operate a second data center in Sydney, Australia. It also plans to use tens of thousands of Nvidia B300 units there, and Tencent is reported to be the main client.