A look at the US DOJ's December 2025 indictment that alleged a smuggling ring illegally exported or tried to export $160M+ in advanced Nvidia AI chips to China
When President Donald Trump announced last December that Washington would let Nvidia sell its advanced H200 chips to China …
The Wire China Eliot Chen
Related Coverage
- U.S. Mulls Per-Customer Cap on Nvidia Chip Sale to China The Information · Qianer Liu
- US Congress and industry clash over new semiconductor security mandates DigiTimes
- “U.S. Weighs Limiting NVIDIA H200 Chip Exports to 75,000 Units per Chinese Company” The Asia Business Daily · Ryu Hyunseok
- US Considers Nvidia Sales Limits For Chinese Firms Silicon UK · Matthew Broersma
- US reportedly mulls capping Nvidia H200 sales to Chinese buyers; move shows rising anxiety over lack of sales: expert Global Times · Chu Daye
- Did President Trump just crash Nvidia stock? Finbold · Andreja Stojanovic
- In yet another twist in the US-China chip export fiasco, it seems like America may limit the number of H200 AI chips being sent to China PC Gamer · James Bentley
Discussion
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@kakashiii111
@kakashiii111
on x
Great post, another validation of what I've been claiming for three years.
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@chrisrmcguire
Chris McGuire
on x
Great reporting by @eliotcxchen on AI chip smuggling. It is surely not a coincidence that Chinese smugglers chose to buy AI chips from Lenovo—a China-HQ'd firm. @BISgov should review Lenovo's AI chip export license, and also block AI chip sales to all China-HQ'd firms in the US.
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@eliotcxchen
Eliot Chen
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NEW: You may remember that on the same day last year Pres. Trump announced H200s could be sold to China, the DOJ announced it had broken up a chip smuggling ring. I dug into the court docs that detail how the U.S. smugglers did it, and have identified the🇨🇳buyer: [image]
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@ohlennart
Lennart Heim
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More people, especially in DC, should be like Eliot: an investigative journalist. Go through court documents, track down the players, and piece together the story. I gave some comments for the story. Worth a read, not for the quantities of AI chips, but for the methods.
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r/TrueReddit
r
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Chasing the Chip Smugglers: The exposure of a U.S.-based operation that smuggled Nvidia's AI chips to China raises questions about the role …
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r/craftofintelligence
r
on reddit
Chasing the Chip Smugglers: The exposure of a U.S.-based operation that smuggled Nvidia's AI chips to China raises questions about the role …
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r/espionage
r
on reddit
Chasing the Chip Smugglers: The exposure of a U.S.-based operation that smuggled Nvidia's AI chips to China raises questions about the role …
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r/technology
r
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Chasing the Chip Smugglers: The exposure of a U.S.-based operation that smuggled Nvidia's AI chips to China raises questions about the role …
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@cherylwoooo
Cheryl Wu
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This is amazing work
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@kimzetter
Kim Zetter
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Awesome work to identify company in China that purchased H200 chips through smugglers
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@dennisw5
Dennis Wilder
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Does anyone believe something like this is enforceable? Why won't Chinese companies simply set up shell firms to buy what they need? US officials are considering caps on the number of AI accelerators Nvidia can export to any one Chinese company https://www.bloomberg.com/...