NVIDIA AI servers used in Singapore allegedly using banned AI GPUs smuggled through Malaysia

AI servers have been used in a fraud case that Singapore announced last week, with NVIDIA AI GPUs that were supplied by US companies like Dell, with banned AI chips from entering China according to a government minister on Monday.

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Singapore has charged three men with a fraud case involving smuggling NVIDIA AI GPUs from the city-state to Chinese AI firm DeepSeek. Channel News Asia reports that the cases were linked to the alleged movement of NVIDIA chips from Singapore to be used by DeepSeek, "without identifying its source" reports Reuters.

Singapore's Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam told reporters on Monday that AI servers involved in the case were supplied by Dell Technologies and Super Micro Computer, before they were sent to Malaysia. He said: "whether Malaysia was the final destination... we do not know for a certain at this point" adding that authorities were investigating the case independently after an anonymous tip-off.

He also said that Singapore has asked US authorities if the AI servers contained US export control items -- NVIDIA AI GPUs -- and that it would work with them on any joint investigation going forward.

• Read more: NVIDIA could experience more China GPU export restrictions from the Trump administration

NVIDIA relies on companies like Dell and Super Micro to make its AI servers containing its AI GPUs, but whether those companies sell the servers directly, or through middlemen, to data center operators around the world is up to them. But now, these systems are under scrutiny in Malaysia, and now Dell, Super Micro, and NVIDIA are possibly in some trouble.

Back in December 2024, The Information reported that NVIDIA asked Super Micro and Dell to audit their customers in Southeast Asia to verify that they still possessed NVIDIA-powered AI servers they purchased, with the outlet citing a person close to the US Department of Commerce.