Posted on 03/03/2025 11:07:29 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Singapore has charged three men with smuggling NVIDIA AI GPUs to Chinese firm DeepSeek. The AI servers, supplied by Dell and Super Micro, were allegedly moved from Singapore to Malaysia. Authorities are investigating with US cooperation to determine if export control items were involved. The case highlights scrutiny on AI server sales.
AI servers have been used in a fraud case that Singapore announced last week, with NVIDIA AI GPUs that were supplied by US companies like Dell, with banned AI chips from entering China according to a government minister on Monday.
Singapore has charged three men with a fraud case involving smuggling NVIDIA AI GPUs from the city-state to Chinese AI firm DeepSeek. Channel News Asia reports that the cases were linked to the alleged movement of NVIDIA chips from Singapore to be used by DeepSeek, "without identifying its source" reports Reuters.
Singapore's Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam told reporters on Monday that AI servers involved in the case were supplied by Dell Technologies and Super Micro Computer, before they were sent to Malaysia. He said: "whether Malaysia was the final destination... we do not know for a certain at this point" adding that authorities were investigating the case independently after an anonymous tip-off.
He also said that Singapore has asked US authorities if the AI servers contained US export control items -- NVIDIA AI GPUs -- and that it would work with them on any joint investigation going forward.
NVIDIA relies on companies like Dell and Super Micro to make its AI servers containing its AI GPUs, but whether those companies sell the servers directly, or through middlemen, to data center operators around the world is up to them. But now, these systems are under scrutiny in Malaysia, and now Dell, Super Micro, and NVIDIA are possibly in some trouble.
Back in December 2024, The Information reported that NVIDIA asked Super Micro and Dell to audit their customers in Southeast Asia to verify that they still possessed NVIDIA-powered AI servers they purchased, with the outlet citing a person close to the US Department of Commerce.
MORE HERE:
Bloomberg reports that Singaporean officials are investigating middlemen who shipped Dell and Super Micro servers with AI chips from Singapore to Malaysia and potentially misrepresented the end users of the hardware, raising fresh concerns that these chips may have ultimately reached China.
Law Minister K Shanmugam told reporters earlier that several people have been arrested for procuring and shipping Nvidia chips to Malaysia, violating US chip restrictions.
The new probe underscores the huge risk that Singapore-based companies may have funneled Nvidia chips through shell entities, ultimately delivering them to China and accelerating the country’s AI sector despite chip restrictions from the US.
Officials in the Trump administration have spent the last month trying to determine whether DeepSeek used intermediaries in Singapore to evade US export controls.
Down almost 9% - to $114.
It was at $153 about two months ago.
NVDA financials are excellent - but - they were priced at a 50 P/E two months ago.
According to CNBC (Business News)...
"Singapore accounted for 18% of Nvidia's revenue in the fiscal year ended Jan. 28, based on customer billing location, but less than 2% of revenue in terms of products shipped to the country."
That could be very bad legal news.
NVDA uses Singapore as a central order and shipping center for Asian sales. Huge potential for shipping to China, North Korea, Iran, and Russia.
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