However, Indosat did not buy the GPUs without first securing a customer. According to the WSJ , sources say Aivres found a client for the Indonesian telco first with INF Tech. This startup was founded by Qi Yuan, a Chinese-born American citizen who also heads the AI institute at Fudan University. It was even said that the university had representatives during the negotiations between INF Tech and Indosat, although INF Tech was the signatory in the contract. With the contract signed, Indosat proceeded with the purchase, with the servers being installed at its site in Jakarta as of October 2025.
Given that Indosat, INF Tech, and even Fudan University aren’t included in the U.S. Entity List, the deal seems to be above board. However, this will definitely raise some eyebrows, especially among those opposed to Chinese companies gaining access to American hardware. After all, they say that even though Chinese companies may not work with the CCP and its military right now, Beijing can compel any corporation — state-owned or otherwise — to cooperate with the state. The Biden administration’s AI Diffusion Rule would have prevented this from happening, but President Trump did not implement it .
On the other hand, Nvidia has been pushing for more lenient export controls, arguing that the U.S. should allow nations to access its hardware to help maintain its lead. When asked for comment, Nvidia said that its compliance team has evaluated and cleared its partners before receiving their shipments. “We support the Trump administration’s vision to secure U.S. AI leadership and create American jobs,” said the company’s spokesperson. “The Biden controls cost taxpayers tens of billions, crippled innovation, and ceded ground to foreign rivals.”
INF told the Wall Street Journal that it does not do any research with military applications and that it complies with U.S. export controls. The publication also reached out to Indosat, asking whether it had been approached by Chinese customers, to which its chief executive, Vikram Sinha, said it works with multinational companies. “Any customer that is outside Indonesia goes through the same regulation, whether it is a U.S. company or a China company,” says Sinha. “If it clears all the regulations, we support it.”
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Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/chinese-ai-startup-gets-access-to-2-300-banned-blackwell-gpus-by-exploiting-cloud-loophole-rents-compute-from-indonesian-firm-with-32-nvidia-gb200-server-racks#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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