Malaysia has no evidence suggesting that data center companies in the country are using unauthorized Nvidia (NVDA, Financials) artificial intelligence chips, Malaysian Trade Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz said in a CNBC interview, responding to allegations that the technology may have been fraudulently transferred from Singapore.
His comment corresponds with allegations Singaporean authorities filed on Feb. 27 against three people suspected of fraudulent activity employing Nvidia's artificial intelligence processors. Concerns over possible breaches of U.S. trade regulations were raised by Singapore's Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam's indication that servers carrying the chips could have been transported to Malaysia.
To find out if the chips reached their intended receivers, Malaysia is now in talks with data center operators like Microsoft (MSFT, Financials), Amazon Web Services, and Google (GOOGL, Financials). Zafrul underlined that Malaysia was not originally assigned as the last destination for the chips and questioned why the hardware was sent from Singapore.
According to the claimed scam, Nvidia's artificial intelligence chips were placed on servers provided by Supermicro (SMCI, Financials) and Dell (DELL, Financials) to companies located in Singapore. Authorities in Singapore think that erroneous depictions of the ultimate users of the servers might have led to an inquiry for rerouting of the gear.
Two Singaporeans have been charged with criminal conspiracy to commit fraud and accused of providing false information in 2024 on the intended beneficiaries of the AI-powered servers.
The U.S. Commerce Department is also keeping an eye on rumors that Chinese artificial intelligence firm DeepSeek could be purchasing limited American chips via middlemen like Malaysia, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates. Washington has tried to restrict China's access to sophisticated artificial intelligence processors by putting export restrictions on important semiconductor technology.
Malaysia has promised to act against any business discovered to be engaged in illegal dealings.
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