July 13 (Reuters) - Nvidia has more than halved the number of Asian customers authorised to buy its AI chips after introducing a "white list" of companies that passed tougher compliance checks to prevent the products from reaching China, the Financial Times reported on Monday.
Over the past few months, Nvidia has stepped up due diligence in Singapore, Malaysia and Japan, the report said, citing three people familiar with the matter.
More than half of its previous customers, particularly neo-cloud providers,
failed the initial review and were removed from the list, though they can reapply after making changes, the report added.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report. Nvidia did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment outside regular business hours.
The tighter scrutiny comes as the Trump administration seeks to prevent advanced U.S. chips from reaching Chinese entities through third countries.
The U.S. Commerce Department issued guidance in May aimed at curbing advanced AI chips from reaching overseas subsidiaries of Chinese companies, highlighting concerns that Nvidia's cutting-edge Blackwell processors may have been exported to Chinese-linked entities in countries such as Malaysia despite U.S. restrictions.
Nvidia has tightened compliance procedures following pressure from Washington, the FT said, adding that staff now visit customers' data centres, verify contracts and interview end users as part of the checks.
The U.S. Department of Commerce is also involved, providing oversight and political backing, the report said.
The department did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment outside regular business hours.
(Reporting by Devika Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
