U.S. Charges 3 in $2.5 Billion Nvidia Chip Smuggling Scheme as Loophole Scrutiny Widens
Updated
Updated · The Washington Post · Nov 15
U.S. Charges 3 in $2.5 Billion Nvidia Chip Smuggling Scheme as Loophole Scrutiny Widens
3 articles · Updated · The Washington Post · Nov 15
Summary
Three people were charged in March 2026 with evading U.S. export controls in a scheme that allegedly sent up to $2.5 billion of servers containing restricted Nvidia chips to China; one contractor pleaded guilty last month.
The case exposed two routes around the curbs: direct smuggling and legal remote access to Nvidia chips hosted in Southeast Asia, a loophole U.S. officials said Friday they are now discussing how to close.
Nvidia said it cut off Singapore-based customer Megaspeed in June 2025 and still bars new sales, after Singapore confiscated executive Alice Huang’s passport during a probe into suspected chip diversion.
The affair is drawing scrutiny toward Jensen Huang, Nvidia and Trump administration officials, with Democrats planning investigations and Republican lawmakers asking Huang to testify behind closed doors.
Since the 2022 AI-chip controls, Nvidia’s reported Singapore revenue jumped from $2.3 billion in 2022 to $23.7 billion in 2024, fueling concern that Southeast Asian intermediaries were helping Chinese firms bypass the ban.