By Jun Yuan Yong
SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Singapore’s case against three men linked by local media to the illegal transfer of Nvidia’s AI chips from Singapore to Chinese artificial intelligence firm DeepSeek has been adjourned until Aug 22, the court ruled on Friday.
At a hearing on Friday, the prosecution said the police would need more time to review new documents and seek responses from overseas parties in the investigations into the three men, Singaporeans Aaron Woon Guo Jie, 41, and Alan Wei Zhaolun, 49, as well as the Chinese national Li Ming, 51.
They were earlier charged with committing fraud by making false representations to unnamed server suppliers about the end users of goods purchased in 2023 and 2024.
The United States banned the export of high-end chips from Nvidia to China in 2022 amid concerns that they could be used for military purposes. A senior U.S. official said that AI firm DeepSeek is aiding China’s military and intelligence operations, Reuters reported on Monday.
Singapore Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said in March that the authorities had ascertained that servers involved in the fraud case may contain Nvidia chips, and that they had investigated the case independently after an anonymous tip-off.
The servers were supplied by Dell Technologies and Super Micro Computer to Singapore-based companies before they were sent on to Malaysia, although it was not clear if Malaysia was the final destination for the servers, he said.
The Singapore case is part of a broader police investigation into 22 individuals and companies suspected of false representation, amid concerns that nations like Singapore have been involved in organised AI chip smuggling to China.
In 2024, Singapore was Nvidia’s second-biggest market after the United States, accounting for 18% of its total revenue in its latest fiscal year, a February filing by the chipmaker shows.
Actual shipments to the Asian trading hub, however, contributed less than 2% of total revenue, as customers use it as a centre for invoicing sales to other countries.
(Reporting by Jun Yuan Yong; Editing by David Stanway)