Key Points
- Two Chinese nationals were arrested in California for illegally shipping AI chips to China.
- The smuggled items included powerful Nvidia H100 and RTX 4090 chips.
- They allegedly used a front company and shipped through Singapore and Malaysia to evade U.S. export controls.
- The pair is accused of lying to a U.S. supplier about the final destination of the chips.
The U.S. Justice Department has charged two Chinese nationals in California with running a multi-million dollar scheme to ship advanced AI chips to China illegally. The charges allege that the pair bypassed strict U.S. export controls designed to keep high-end technology out of the hands of geopolitical rivals.
According to the criminal complaint, Chuan Geng and Shiwei Yang set up a company called ALX Solutions Inc. in 2022, shortly after the U.S. government began requiring licenses to export powerful chips. They are accused of illegally shipping tens of millions of dollars’ worth of technology, including Nvidia’s highly sought-after H100 and RTX 4090 chips.
The complaint details how the duo allegedly hid the final destination of the chips by routing over 20 shipments through freight forwarding companies in Singapore and Malaysia. To acquire the technology in the first place, they allegedly lied to a U.S. supplier, server maker Super Micro Computer, claiming that the more than 200 H100 chips they purchased were for end users in Singapore and Japan.
These H100 chips are crucial for training large AI models and developing technologies like self-driving cars and advanced medical systems, which is why the U.S. has put them under tight export controls.
Geng and Yang appeared in a Los Angeles court on Monday. Geng, a permanent resident, was released on a $250,000 bond. Yang, who had overstayed her visa, is scheduled for a detention hearing.
