Did China’s much-lauded ‘AI breakthrough’ star DeepSeek acquire advanced Nvidia computer chips via Singapore and Malaysia?
That’s a question now being asked by authorities in the Southeast Asian city-state and its close neighbour.
On Thursday, Singapore prosecutors told a court that a case in which Singapore-based firms have been accused of fraudulently supplying US servers to Malaysia involves transactions worth $390 million.
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Three men have been charged with committing fraud against Dell and Super Micro by falsely representing where the servers would end up.
Singapore media have linked the case to the possible transfer of Nvidia’s artificial intelligence chips to Chinese AI firm DeepSeek.
The United States is investigating if DeepSeek, whose AI model’s performance rocked the tech world in January, has been using banned US chips.
Singapore authorities have said the servers may have contained Nvidia chips but did not say whether the chips were the high-end semiconductors that are subject to US export controls.
Asked about the potential link to DeepSeek, Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said last week that he did not want to speculate.
The three suspects are Singaporeans Aaron Woon, 41, and Alan Wei, 49, and Chinese national Li Ming, 51.
Prosecutors said on Thursday they believe Wei paid himself dividends amounting to tens of millions of dollars, while Woon received a bonus of millions.
Asked about the charges, Shashi Nathan, the lawyer for Wei, said he wants to see proof from prosecutors of the value of Wei’s alleged fraudulent transactions.
Li’s lawyer declined to comment and Woon’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The case is part of a wider police investigation in Singapore of 22 individuals and companies suspected of false representation. Six other people were arrested.
Prosecutors also said on Thursday that police are investigating whether other suppliers are involved in similar cases.
Malaysia is also investigating if its laws were breached.
- Reuters with additional editing by Jim Pollard
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