That's a strange list of nations, isn't it? I wonder what their logic is.

No EU initially - I think this is the same with Gemini 1.5 Pro too. I believe it’s to do with the various legal restrictions around AI which iirc take a few weeks.

yes, china is too

All anglophone. I'm guessing privacy laws or something like that disqualifies the UK and Ireland.

GPU server locations, maybe?

LLM chat is so compute heavy and not bandwidth heavy that anywhere with reliable fiber and cheap electricity is suitable. Ping is lower than average keystroke delay for most who haven't undergone explicit speed typing training (we're talking 60~120 WPM for between intercontinental to pathological (other end of the world) servers). Bandwidth matters a bit more for multimodal interaction, but it's still rather minor.