South Korean media: The most advanced AI chips in the US are being used by China and Russia for AI development
It is reported that despite the continuous tightening of U.S. semiconductor and artificial intelligence (AI) chip export controls, chips continue to flow into restricted areas through the gray areas of the global supply chain. After a large number of U.S.-made general-purpose chips were found in Russian military equipment, which led to manufacturers being implicated in legal trouble, Chinese AI company DeepSeek has also been accused of purchasing NVIDIA's latest GPUs (graphics processing units) through third-country channels.
On the 10th local time, according to Bloomberg, the law firm Baker & Hostetler and lawyer Mikal Vats represented dozens of Ukrainians' cases, suing AMD, Intel, and Texas Instruments in a Texas court. They accused the defendant companies of failing to prevent their chips from being used in military equipment such as Russian drones and missiles. They also alleged that on Russian cruise missiles "KH-101" and ballistic missiles "Iskander" and Iranian drones used to attack Ukraine after 2023, a large number of the defendants' chips were found. Vats condemned these companies as "merchants of death" and stated, "making U.S. sanctions a joke."
Additionally, it was reported that Chinese company DeepSeek was accused of purchasing thousands of NVIDIA's latest "Blackwell" architecture GPUs, which are being used to develop next-generation models. On the same day, according to the U.S. professional IT media outlet "The Information," DeepSeek used non-Chinese data centers in Southeast Asia to first purchase chips through formal sales channels. After the equipment passed inspection, they disassembled the servers and transported them back to mainland China as components, then reassembled them, thereby circumventing export controls.
When NVIDIA, Dell, and Supermicro delivered products to data centers, although they personally confirmed whether export regulations were followed on site, it is difficult to monitor the operation process of the components after acceptance. An NVIDIA spokesperson said, "Although the feasibility of smuggling is low, we will track all reports received."
Owing to the above situation, voices criticizing the U.S. AI chip restrictions on China and the sanctions against Russia's defense industry have become rampant. Analysts believe that especially the circulation networks of third countries, the detour procurement of data centers, and the reassembly of disassembled servers, so-called "non-traditional paths" have expanded, and merely simple export licensing regulations are difficult to strengthen regulation.
Source: Chosun Ilbo
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1851305835274308/
Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.