A judge in Singapore has granted bail to three men accused of deceiving suppliers of high-performance server computers—potentially containing Nvidia chips restricted by U.S. export regulations.
These rules prohibit the sale of such chips to certain countries, particularly in an effort to prevent their acquisition by organizations in China.
The decision comes nearly two weeks after the trio was charged with smuggling Nvidia chips and defrauding tech giants Dell and Super Micro by misrepresenting the final location of the servers.
According to Singaporean prosecutors, the fraud scheme involved servers procured through Singapore-based companies and later moved to Malaysia, with transactions amounting to approximately $390 million, as reported by Reuters. However, the ultimate destination of these servers remains unclear.
Bail was set at S$800,000 ($600,000) and S$600,000 for the two Singaporean suspects, while the third man, a Chinese national, received a higher bail amount of S$1 million. Their next court hearing is scheduled for May 2.
Prosecutors have requested an eight-week extension to complete investigations. They also proposed specific bail conditions, including travel restrictions that prevent the men from accessing airports or border checkpoints and a ban on discussing the case if released. Bloomberg also reported that Chinese nationals must wear electronic monitoring devices.
Nvidia’s latest annual report revealed that Singapore contributed 18% of its revenue in the fiscal year ending January 28 despite accounting for less than 2% of total shipments.
This case comes amid growing concerns about how China’s AI industry, particularly companies like DeepSeek, sources advanced computing power. DeepSeek gained global attention in January for its cutting-edge AI technology, which relies on Nvidia chips despite U.S. efforts to curb exports to China.
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Meanwhile, Malaysia announced last week that it would take necessary action against local companies involved in the alleged transfer of Nvidia chips from Singapore to China.
