US suspicion may be right, Singapore may have an ‘Nvidia-DeepSeek problem’

The Singapore Police Force has arrested three men of fraud. Reports suggests that the arrests have been made in connection with the alleged illegal re-export of Nvidia GPUs to DeepSeek, a Chinese AI company, skirting US trade sanctions, according to ChannelNewsAsia. In a joint operation, police and customs officials swept through 22 sites, detained nine suspects, and confiscated electronic devices and paperwork, as reported by Reuters.

In 2024, Singapore unexpectedly surged to become Nvidia’s second-biggest revenue hub, prompting speculation that the city-state was a conduit for smuggling GPUs into China.