Police in Singapore have arrested three individuals who may have been involved in the Nvidia chip fraud case. The suspects are accused of forging documents to access and distribute Nvidia’s products worldwide.
The arrests occurred after an extensive investigation into irregularities in the procurement of Nvidia’s advanced chips. These chips are specifically designed for AI workloads and machine learning applications. They are particularly valuable in today’s tech market and very interesting to Chinese players who can no longer obtain foreign chips due to U.S. restrictions.
Strict controls on AI hardware
The police have not given details about the products involved in the case, and the manufacturer of these products remains secret. The case does come at a crucial time, as America has recently started investigations into the illegal channelling of Nvidia chips to China. The U.S. Department of Commerce suspects DeepSeek of having used advanced U.S. chips in the training process of its AI model. DeepSeek states it used Nvidia’s H800 chips, which it could legally purchase in 2023.
Nvidia, as a leader in AI chips and servers, has said it will work more closely with local authorities to prevent similar incidents in the future. The suspects risk significant penalties under Singapore law.
DeepSeek faces strong opposition
Meanwhile, several countries have already decided the use of the Chinese AI model is too risky. The Dutch government, for example, recently banned the use of this AI for its own officials. Italy has generally blocked the tool until the company provides more insight into how personal data is collected.
Also read: Italy blocks Chinese DeepSeek over privacy concerns