LOS ANGELES: Two Chinese nationals in California were arrested and charged with illegally shipping tens of millions of dollars’ worth of AI chips to China, including Nvidia H100s, the US Justice Department said on Tuesday (Aug 5).
Chuan Geng, 28, of Pasadena, and Shiwei Yang, 28, of El Monte, exported the advanced Nvidia chips and other technology to China from October 2022 through July 2025 without obtaining the required licenses from the US Commerce Department, the Justice Department said, citing an affidavit filed with the complaint.
According to the affidavit, Geng and Yang’s El Monte-based company, ALX Solutions, was founded in 2022, shortly after the US imposed sweeping export controls on technology to China and began to require licenses for the chips.
A spokesperson for Nvidia declined comment.
Over 20 shipments from ALX went to shipping and freight forwarding companies in Singapore and Malaysia, which are often used as transshipment points for illegal goods to China, a federal agent, who works for the US Commerce Department, said in the affidavit.
ALX received a US$1 million payment from a China-based company in January 2024 and other payments from companies in Hong Kong and China, not from the freight forwarding companies, the agent said.
Nvidia H100s are advanced chips that can be used to train large language models and for many other applications.
