A group of nine Nvidia employees, including one senior manager, have been charged in for smuggling B300—one of Nvidia’s top-tier chips—to China, in violation of US export controls. The charge was handed down by a court in Keelung, Taiwan, where many Nvidia chips are manufactured.
Nvidia chips have been finding their way into China for a while now, despite a US ban on the export of top-tier tech. Earlier in the year, it was alleged that DeepSeek had been using Nvidia’s most powerful chip—the Blackwell—to train its AI models at a facility in China’s Inner Mongolia region. It was reported in June that the US government was cracking down on loopholes that were allowing chips and other tech to reach China via third-country intermediaries. This recent court ruling represents the first charges brought against individuals violating the export controls.
It is not known what steps Nvidia itself is taking to prevent its staff from engaging in such illicit activity, but the fact that one of the individuals charged was a member of senior management should be serious cause for concern for the company. Nvidia is walking a tightrope, as China presents a huge market to sell all sorts of technology, but as an American company, he also has a responsibility to comply with the regulations set out by Washington.