If you have been wondering how banned chips still wind up in China's AI labs, here is one clue: a government-linked finance firm helped pay for the hardware. Records filed in Beijing show Semi-Tech Leasing Group Co. supplied funding over the past year to Glory View Technology Co. and its Shenzhen unit to acquire more than 700 servers. Bloomberg reviewed those materials in May and June.
Within that stack of contracts, one deal calls out 32 Asustek Computer Inc. servers using Nvidia's B300 processors, with the model noted as XA NB3I-E12. The B300 is part of Nvidia's high-end Blackwell family, which Washington bars from being sold into China without explicit approval. Many of the other machines financed by Semi-Tech matched technical specs consistent with Blackwell-class systems, although most contracts did not spell out the chips inside.
After Bloomberg's initial look, Semi-Tech filed new, censored copies of every record in late June, stripping out details such as model identifiers, component requirements, supplier names and where the servers were located. That earlier visibility is what made the 32 Blackwell systems identifiable.
Semi-Tech Leasing, known as Sino IC Leasing Co. until a name change in June, was formed in 2015 by the China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, better known as the Big Fund, to channel financing into chipmaking. After the Big Fund offloaded most of its stake in 2020, municipal and provincial authorities, including those in Shenzhen and Beijing, came to hold the bulk of Semi-Tech's equity, according to Chinese corporate registry filings. The paperwork underscores a simple point: in this instance, state-backed money helped grease the path for restricted gear.
In recent years, Semi-Tech has pushed beyond chip projects into data center buildouts. Because Semi-Tech is not publicly listed, it is not required to break out its spending in detail, which keeps the contours of that support murky.
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Glory View, a listed company that once focused on smart city solutions, has shifted over the past couple of years into AI data center work. Its shares are up roughly 230% this year, powered by strong profits from its AI push. The first of about a dozen finance leases with Semi-Tech arrived in August 2025, when Glory View effectively borrowed 401 million yuan (about $60 million) to purchase 171 servers, to be repaid over 63 months. Similar transactions continued through May, bringing combined borrowings from Semi-Tech to above 3 billion yuan tied to more than 700 servers.
Most of the servers in these deals, including the 32 running Blackwell-class chips, were recorded as installed at a China Mobile Ltd. data center park in Zhongwei, Ningxia, a city on the edge of the Gobi.
U.S. export rules prohibit selling Nvidia's Blackwell chips into China without a specific license. Authorities have alleged that gray-market intermediaries moved billions of dollars of Nvidia gear into the country, including Blackwell processors, taking advantage of what some U.S. officials describe as major holes in company vetting and patchy enforcement. President Donald Trump has been clear that he does not want to see this flow continue.
Nvidia said it is "looking into this report and will work with our OEM customer to investigate," referring to server builders such as Asus. Asus said it "is committed to strict compliance with all applicable laws and regulations, including export controls." The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in Beijing did not respond to a faxed inquiry, and Semi-Tech Leasing and Glory View did not answer questions. China Mobile also did not respond to a request for comment.
State-linked cash helping place high-performance servers in national AI clusters is not a small story, and at least 32 of those boxes are identified with Nvidia B300 chips. That puts more attention on compliance for suppliers, financiers and customers, especially when deal trails show up in the People's Bank of China's credit system, as they did here.
For everyday investors, this links policy, procurement and profits in a way that can shape the outlook for any company connected to AI infrastructure. Bloomberg first examined the unredacted contracts in May and June, and in late June the company submitted sanitized versions that removed specifics that had made the Blackwell systems traceable, such as the XA NB3I-E12 model and install locations. Keep an eye on how regulators and the companies respond to this kind of paper trail.
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