Malaysia plans tighter controls over the flow of Nvidia Corp’s chips after the US demanded it keep a closer eye on advanced semiconductors that could potentially make their way to China, the Financial Times (FT) cited Malaysian Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz as saying.
Washington asked Malaysia to closely scrutinize the shipment of Nvidia chips coming to the country, Tengku Zafrul told the newspaper. “They want us to make sure that servers end up in the data centers that they’re supposed to and not suddenly move to another ship.”
The minister’s pledge coincides with a Singapore investigation into the final destinations of a bunch of servers likely containing Nvidia chips, after they were allegedly shipped from the city-state to Malaysia.
Photo: Bloomberg
Investigators have charged three men with fraud for allegedly misleading server suppliers Dell Technologies Inc and Super Micro Computer Inc about the final end users of the hardware, which Singaporean authorities said might have contained Nvidia chips that are banned from sale in China.
Washington has for years curbed Chinese imports of advanced semiconductors and the tools used to make them, over concerns that the technology — particularly its artificial intelligence (AI) applications — could fuel Beijing’s military capabilities. They have also expanded some restrictions to countries from Southeast Asia to the Middle East, which US officials worry could serve as back doors for China to access banned tech.
Singapore has recently found itself a focal point of those efforts. Trump administration officials are looking into whether Chinese AI start-up DeepSeek (深度求索) managed to purchase banned Nvidia chips via third parties in Singapore, Bloomberg has reported.
US lawmakers have raised concerns about the large share of Nvidia revenue from Singapore despite relatively small physical shipments to the country, which they say points to possible transshipment of hardware to China.
Singapore and Nvidia officials have said that many Nvidia customers use the island as a centralized billing location, and that the island only receives a small number of physical Nvidia deliveries.
Anna Bhobho, a 31-year-old housewife from rural Zimbabwe, was once a silent observer in her home, excluded from financial and family decisionmaking in the deeply patriarchal society. Today, she is a driver of change in her village, thanks to an electric tricycle she owns. In many parts of rural sub-Saharan Africa, women have long been excluded from mainstream economic activities such as operating public transportation. However, three-wheelers powered by green energy are reversing that trend, offering financial opportunities and a newfound sense of importance. “My husband now looks up to me to take care of a large chunk of expenses,
SECTOR LEADER: TSMC can increase capacity by as much as 20 percent or more in the advanced node part of the foundry market by 2030, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to lead its peers in the advanced 2-nanometer process technology, despite competition from Samsung Electronics Co and Intel Corp, TrendForce Corp analyst Joanne Chiao (喬安) said. TSMC’s sophisticated products and its large production scale are expected to allow the company to continue dominating the global 2-nanometer process market this year, Chiao said. The world’s largest contract chipmaker is scheduled to begin mass production of chips made on the 2-nanometer process in its Hsinchu fab in the second half of this year. It would also hold a ceremony on Monday next week to
TECH CLUSTER: The US company’s new office is in the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City, a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan US chip designer Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) yesterday launched an office in Tainan’s Gueiren District (歸仁), marking a significant milestone in the development of southern Taiwan’s artificial intelligence (AI) industry, the Tainan City Government said in a statement. AMD Taiwan general manager Vincent Chern (陳民皓) presided over the opening ceremony for the company’s new office at the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City (沙崙智慧綠能科學城), a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan. Facilities in the new office include an information processing center, and a research and development (R&D) center, the Tainan Economic Development Bureau said. The Ministry
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday signed a letter of intent with Alaska Gasline Development Corp (AGDC), expressing an interest to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) and invest in the latter’s Alaska LNG project, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. Under the agreement, CPC is to participate in the project’s upstream gas investment to secure stable energy resources for Taiwan, the ministry said. The Alaska LNG project is jointly promoted by AGDC and major developer Glenfarne Group LLC, as Alaska plans to export up to 20 million tonnes of LNG annually from 2031. It involves constructing an 1,290km