Nvidia is requiring cloud providers in Southeast Asia to enroll in its Fleet Intelligence software if they want to keep the company's NCP designation, according to people familiar with the new requirements. The NCP label gives cloud providers Nvidia's public endorsement and preferred access to its sought-after AI chips, which puts Nvidia in a position to use those benefits as leverage. Fleet Intelligence, introduced last December primarily as a data center management tool, collects information about Nvidia hardware deployed across participating companies' infrastructure, including the locations of individual accelerators. That data could give Nvidia a clearer picture of whether its chips are still operating after they leave the supply chain.
The requirement is new, but the tracking itself is not universal. Participation in the software has remained voluntary outside the NCP requirement, and Nvidia does not automatically receive location data from every customer running it. Nvidia has also not said whether existing Cloud Partners will have to enroll to keep their designation, or whether the requirement will eventually extend beyond Southeast Asia.
Nvidia has been working on ways to locate its AI hardware for some time. Last December, reports described software-based GPU tracking that uses GPU telemetry and network latency measurements to estimate where processors are operating. Nvidia described the software as a customer-installed agent for monitoring hardware health, integrity and inventory.
The tracking technology has uses beyond data maintenance. The U.S. restricts Chinese companies from buying advanced AI accelerators without a license, yet authorities believe billions of dollars worth of the hardware have reached Chinese buyers through third-party networks, with Southeast Asia an important transit point. A C4ADS investigation examined transactions between 2022 and 2025 and identified $13.4 million worth of Nvidia A100, H100 and AD102-series GPUs moving through regional trade routes, including purchases through research initiatives, shell companies and shipments routed through other Southeast Asian countries. The report also linked $4.6 billion in hardware purchases to Singapore-based Megaspeed International.
Megaspeed has been under U.S. and Singaporean investigation for more than a year over suspected chip diversion. Last week, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang defended his dealings with the firm, calling them completely normal and saying Nvidia had studied all of its GPU deployments and counted every one. Megaspeed denied any wrongdoing. In April, Megaspeed's Malaysian data center landlord terminated its contract and reallocated 68.4 megawatts of capacity to another cloud provider.
Megaspeed is not the only difficult case. Earlier this year, U.S. prosecutors accused people associated with Super Micro of helping divert around $2.5 billion worth of Nvidia-powered servers to China through Southeast Asian intermediaries, using falsified paperwork and dummy server shells while genuine hardware was shipped onward after inspections. More recently, Super Micro has faced additional scrutiny over export compliance after inspections. Nvidia has also reportedly removed half of the Asian companies on its pre-approved buyer list and told cloud providers to keep at least 51% of their computing services with customers outside China.
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