[News] Singapore Reportedly Probes NVIDIA Chip Shipments to Malaysia over China Diversion Concerns

Amid concerns that Singapore may be a key intermediary in funneling NVIDIA chips to restricted nations, the country is taking action. According to Bloomberg, Singapore is investigating whether Dell and Supermicro servers shipped to Malaysia contained NVIDIA chips banned in China.

Law minister K Shanmugam detailed the probe on March 3 after reports of arrests over alleged violations of US sanctions, according to Bloomberg. Suspects allegedly misled server suppliers about end-users before shipping NVIDIA-powered hardware from Singapore to Malaysia.

Authorities are now investigating whether Dell and Supermicro servers reached other countries, the report adds.

Notably, according to NVIDIA’s latest 10-Q filing, Singapore was the company’s second-largest market by revenue, accounting for around 22% in Q3 of FY25. However, Singapore stated that less than 1% of NVIDIA’s total sales come from products physically delivered to the country, according to Bloomberg and local media The Straits Times.

The country’s latest move, therefore, could be regarded as a way of self-clarification, as it also follows reports of a U.S. probe into DeepSeek allegedly bypassing chip curbs via third parties in Singapore.

As highlighted in the Bloomberg report, NVIDIA’s AI chips are built into servers by Dell, Supermicro, and HPE, which sell them directly or via intermediaries to global data centers.

Before Singapore made the move, NVIDIA has reportedly ramped up efforts to track its AI chips allegedly bypassing US export controls in late 2024. According to The Information, the U.S. chip giant has enlisted partners like Supermicro and Dell, asking them to audit Southeast Asian customers.

Read more

• [News] U.S. Reportedly Probes DeepSeek’s Acquisition of Banned AI Chips as NVIDIA’s Singapore Sales Soar
• [News] Singapore States Less Than 1% of NVIDIA’s Revenue Tied to Physical Shipments to The Country

(Photo credit: NVIDIA)