New: Nvidia’s biggest Southeast Asian partner imported tens of thousands more AI chips than Nvidia saw in its data centers, told potential investors about a “specific area” facility in an unnamed country — & has something of a Chinese corporate twin 1/ bloomberg.com/news/features/…

You should also read the latest from my inimitable colleague @imandylin2, who is among the many journalists at Bloomberg digging into this important topic. I'm especially grateful to my editor Ritsuko Ando for her care with our latest reporting 8/8 bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

If your work touches chip smuggling — from doing it to stopping it — I want to talk to you. I'm on Signal @/mackhawk.71, or you can DM me for my WeChat. I treat both platforms as default off-record and am careful to protect my sources Free story link: 7/ bloomberg.com/news/features/…

This isn't just about Nvidia's due diligence. Washington's (in)actions, from policy to enforcement, set a tone for Silicon Valley and Singapore and Shenzhen There's debate over the best approach. But under Trump's current one, black market brokers say they're faring alright 6/

There are now multiple allegations of bad actors getting past Nvidia's screening system, securing many more chips than they have the space (outside of China) to install — despite Jensen Huang saying that Nvidia prioritizes customers that are ready to put its products to use 5/

I also thought about Megaspeed. Nvidia's initial checks, after which it declared nothing was amiss, were 50,000 chips short Nvidia pledged follow-ups but declines to say whether it's done any, even after Megaspeed was dropped by its biggest facility 4/ xitter.cf/mackhawk/status/200348…

As I reported this piece, I kept coming back to this article from 2025, when Nvidia and many US officials said it was unrealistic for China to get 115,000 Hopper chips Authorities now say China has that amount of smuggled computing power and then some 3/ xitter.cf/mackhawk/status/194290…

This story reflects conversations with dozens of government officials, industry execs and illicit brokers It includes Nvidia's most expansive comments yet, @SemiAnalysis_ diversion data, and records suggesting the Chinese government supports the trade 2/ bloomberg.com/news/features/…

I wrote about the systemic failure by the world's most valuable company and powerful government to stop smuggling of AI chips to China US officials say Nvidia is missing obvious signs. Nvidia says "companies honor US laws as they are, not as America’s critics wish they were" 1/

A senior US official, three days ago: a "trivial" number of Nvidia H200 chips have been shipped to China Jensen yesterday: "we haven't really started much shipment yet" Jensen today, asked today by @leeminjeong83 whether Nvidia has shipped any H200s: "it doesn't even matter"

Very touching description of silicon from the Yingge Ceramics Museum in New Taipei City, which traces Taiwanese industry from prehistoric pottery to modern-day semiconductors “The achievement of this high-quality ceramic crystal gives humanity dreams and hopes”

& this one was with great colleagues in the Bloomberg newsroom I'm gonna go back to being off this website now but if you have info on travel restrictions in China — or other tips, Qs, complaints (be nice) — I'm @/mackhawk.71 on Signal. DM for WeChat bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

& free links to other China-getting-Nvidia-chips stuff: The Thai AI firm allegedly involved in the Super Micro smuggling scandal: bloomberg.com/news/articles/… Taiwan's first attempt to crack down on chip diversion, the (possibly first) case focused on Japan: bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

I’ve covered a lot of DC debates over what AI chip policy *should be* But this week, the argument is over what the policy *has been* Paywall-free explanation of the Nvidia China loophole drama: bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

New: Records filed with Chinese regulators suggest a little-known computing company procured hundreds of Super Micro servers with banned Nvidia H100/H200 chips The firm is the parent of one of Nvidia’s few official cloud partners in China Free to read: bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

I’m not on this site much these days, but I’m always happy to talk about chips on Signal @/mackhawk.71. I treat messages there as off record unless agreed otherwise & take source protection very seriously Here's the free link to our Megaspeed story 12/12 bloomberg.com/news/features/…

There's a lot more in our piece, which is free to read for a week. It was a big team effort with @imandylin2, @KariSoo1, @villeheiskanen & many others This story isn't just about export controls enforcement. It's also about underlying policy — for China & everywhere else 11/

Shanghai Shuoyao has also posted job ads at and near the Shanghai data center whose rendering Megaspeed used to represent its "specific area" facility One of the ads was for work on Nvidia's H100 & H200 chips, which are illegal to ship to China without a US license 10/

One of the holding company’s subsidiaries, Shanghai Shuoyao, looks like Megaspeed in several ways It posted a photo of its Indonesia staff that actually depicts Megaspeed employees. It outlined a similar footprint. It had a nearly identical website to a Megaspeed sub-brand 9/

To represent the “specific area” facility, Megaspeed used a rendering of a data center in Shanghai That project was funded in part by Megaspeed’s original parent, plus a holding company created years prior by Megaspeed’s founder (who relinquished her shares there in 2017) 8/