Singapore is looking into a fraud case involving Dell (NYSE:DELL) and Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ:SMCI) servers that were shipped to Malaysia and may have contained Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) chips restricted under U.S. export rules.
Three men were arrested and charged with fraud last week. Singapore's law minister, K. Shanmugam, said the servers came through Singapore before heading to Malaysia, but it's unclear if that was their final stop. Authorities believe there may have been false claims about the destination.
The U.S. is also investigating whether DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, got its hands on restricted Nvidia chips through third parties in Singapore, potentially bypassing export bans. Singapore started its probe based on an anonymous tip, not at the request of another government, and has asked U.S. and Malaysian authorities for more information.
Despite U.S. restrictions, Chinese buyers are still finding ways to acquire Nvidia's latest AI chips. Some are routing purchases through companies in Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Meanwhile, major Chinese firms like Alibaba (NYSE:BABA), Tencent (TCEHY), and ByteDance are stockpiling Nvidia's H20 chips, which are still allowed but may soon face new restrictions.
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