In the midst of the scandal, the United States traced Nvidia chips that arrived in China from a Singapore firm
The United States confirmed that it managed to identify Nvidia technological equipment in China, despite the restrictions that prevent the export of certain advanced chips to the Asian country from 2023.
The investigation points to an alleged commercial intermediation maneuver that a Singapore-based company would have used to circumvent Washington’s controls.
As published BloombergNewsservers equipped with H800 processors, designed for tasks linked to artificial intelligence (AI), were acquired by Aperia Cloud Services through manufacturer Dell Technologies. However, the equipment would have ended up in the hands of Shanghai Longteng Intelligent Computing, a company based in Shanghai.
The journey of these devices raised concern among US authorities, who seek to prevent China from accessing technology considered strategic to compete in the development of artificial intelligence.
The export ban is part of a technological control policy implemented by Washington within the framework of the economic and technological dispute between the two world powers.
Suspicions of diversion
One of the names that appears at the center of the controversy is that of Alice Huang, linked to Shanghai Longteng Intelligent Computing and former director of Megaspeed International, a data center company based in Singapore.
US intelligence agencies consider that Megaspeed would have ties to the Chinese Ministry of State Security and suspect that it may have intervened in the shipment of advanced semiconductors to China through alternative commercial circuits.
On Thursday, the firm announced that it had launched an internal investigation to determine whether it complied with current regulations on exporting high-end chips. In parallel, Malaysia reported that it is also investigating a subsidiary of Megaspeed due to signs of a possible diversion of processors to third countries.
The accusations suggest that these business structures could have functioned as intermediaries to facilitate Chinese access to technological components that the United States seeks to keep out of its reach.
Both the company and the Beijing government rejected the accusations. China also denied that Alice Huang has links to espionage activities.
Jensen Huang must answer to Congress
The case also reached the highest political and business level. Jensen Huang, co-founder of Nvidia and who led the company for 33 years, was summoned to give explanations before US legislators.
Republican Senator Tim Scott, head of the Senate Banking Committee, reported that he requested the appearance of Huang and the Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, for next December 3.
Through a message posted on the social network
The initiative joins a joint request from three committees of the House of Representatives, which requested to hold a closed-door interview with Huang on December 1. The legislators even warned that they could resort to a court summons if the businessman does not appear.
In this way, the alleged diversion of Nvidia chips to China ceased to be just a commercial issue and began to occupy a central place in the debate on national security, technological espionage and the global competition for leadership in artificial intelligence.
