ByteDance subsidiary tapped Norway data center for Nvidia B200 access, IPO filing reveals
A UK-based cloud firm's IPO filing shows that a ByteDance subsidiary was its largest customer, providing access to over 2,000 Nvidia B200 AI chips at a Norwegian data center. The arrangement reportedly exploited gaps in US export restrictions, though it was legal. The subsidiary contributed 73% of Nscale's 2025 revenue.
Nscale's IPO paperwork revealed the arrangement indirectly through a $105 million Macquarie loan agreement, which named Spring (SG) Pte Ltd as a major client. The loan, supplemented by $35 million in equity, financed the purchase of advanced Nvidia GPUs. Following the first loan draw, Nscale closed deals with Microsoft and Nvidia, with Jensen Huang personally committing over $660 million. Nvidia later expanded commitments beyond $2 billion, plus an $860 million lease guarantee at a Texas facility.
Macquarie required Nscale to monitor Spring's chip usage for "compute anomalies or suspicious configurations" that might breach U.S. export rules. Nscale also commissioned third-party due diligence on both ByteDance and Spring to verify legal compliance. The company expects Spring's revenue share to drop below 20% as larger Western contracts with Microsoft ($44 billion) and Anthropic ($45 billion) take effect.
This case could reshape how regulators view cloud-based AI access versus physical chip exports, potentially prompting tighter scrutiny of overseas data center arrangements. U.S. companies like Microsoft and Anthropic may face reputational questions about partnering with a firm that served a Chinese-linked customer, while smaller neoclouds could see increased compliance burdens. The broader impact may include accelerated rule-making around AI infrastructure leasing, affecting global competition in advanced computing.