Authorities in the United States have charged two Chinese citizens with shipping tens of millions of dollars' worth of advanced Nvidia chips to China in breach of export controls. Chuan Geng and Shiwei Yang are alleged to have "knowingly and willfully" exported the graphic processing units (GPUs) used to power artificial intelligence without authorisation from October 2022 to July 2025, the US Department of Justice said on Tuesday. Export records indicate that Geng and Yang, both 28, organised at least 21 shipments through their El Monte, California-based company ALX Solutions Inc to companies in Singapore and Malaysia, the Justice Department said. The exports included a December 2024 shipment of Nvidia H100 GPUs – described as the most powerful chip on the market – that was "falsely labelled" and had not obtained the necessary licence from the US Department of Commerce, the Justice Department said. According to prosecutors, ALX Solutions received payments from firms in Hong Kong and China, including a 1m sum from a China-based company in January 2024, rather than the companies that accepted the shipments.

Two Los Angeles County residents face federal charges after they were arrested on suspicion of illegally exporting tens of millions of dollars' worth of artificial intelligence microchips to China, authorities said. Chuan Geng, 28, of Pasadena; and Shiwei Yang, 28, of El Monte, were taken into custody on Saturday for their alleged involvement in the illegal overseas export of processing units used in modern computing and artificial intelligence applications, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office for the Eastern District of California. Federal prosecutors said both were Chinese nationals, though Geng is a lawful permanent resident of the U.S. Yang, however, was in the country illegally as she had overstayed her visa, according to authorities. Yaoning'Mike' Sun of Chino Hills is charged with acting as an illegal agent of a foreign power and conspiring to advance China-friendly policies in local government. In a criminal complaint, U.S. Justice Department officials alleged the pair had "knowingly and willingly" undercut federal export regulations to conceal illegal shipments to China for nearly three years.