U.S. charges two Chinese nationals for illegally shipping Nvidia AI chips to China
China is one of Nvidia’s largest markets, especially for data centers, game and artificial intelligence applications.
Avishek DAS | LightoKet | Getty Images
Two Chinese citizens in California were arrested and accused of illegal shipment of tens of millions of dollars‘ AI chips worth, Nvidia, The Ministry of Justice said it on Tuesday.
Doj, 28 -year -old Chuan Geng and 28 -year -old Shiwei Yang exported sensitive chips and other technologies to China from October 2022 to July 2025 without obtaining the necessary licenses.
According to a criminal complaint to CNBC, illegal posts contained NVIDIA’s H100 general processing units. The H100 is one of the latest chips used in artificial intelligence applications of the US chipper manufacturer.
The Ministry of Commerce has been under export controls since 2022, as part of the US’s efforts to restrict China’s access to the most advanced semiconductor technology of China.
In his statement to CNBC, Nvidia shows that smuggling is “non -starter”. “We sell our products to well -known partners, including OEMs that help us to comply with all sales to US export control rules.”
The chipset, “relatively small exporters and shipments are subject to comprehensive examination and examination, and the guided products will not have services, supports or updates.”
Geng and Yang’s California -based company Alx Solutions were established shortly after US CHIP controls were first realized.
According to Doj, the law enforcement officers searched for the Alx Solution and Sending Sensitive Chips to China through Malaysia and seized the phones of Geng and Yang, which revealed accusing communication between the defendants, including those who are about to escape the US export laws.
The investigation also showed that in December 2024, Alx Solutions made more than 20 shipments to transport and freight forwarding companies in Singapore and Malaysia from the United States and that Doj was used as transfer points to hide illegal posts to China.
Alx solutions did not seem to have been paid because they received a large number of payments from Hong Kong and China -based companies.
The US Department of Commerce Industry and Security Bureau and FBI continue to investigate the issue.
The smuggling of advanced microchips has become an increasing concern in Washington. According to A Report from Financial Times last monthDonald Trump’s chips of at least $ 1 billion in Nvidia’s chips entered China after tightening chip export controls earlier this year.
In response to the report, Nvidia said that data centers built with illegal chips were “a lost offer” and did not support unauthorized products.
