US authorities have charged two Chinese nationals with illegally exporting high-end AI chips to China without the necessary licences.
The Department of Justice said Chuan Geng and Shiwei Yang, linked to California-based ALX Solutions, coordinated shipments of advanced Nvidia graphics chips, including the restricted H100 and RTX 4090 models, over the past three years.
According to court filings, the pair used shipping hubs in Singapore and Malaysia to disguise the final destination of the goods. Payments were reportedly received from companies in Hong Kong and mainland China.
Neither Geng nor Yang had export clearance, investigators said. One shipment, declared to be worth over $28 million, was destined for a non-existent company in Singapore.
Both suspects were arrested in Los Angeles and face up to 20 years in prison.