SHARES FALL SHARPLY
Top-end chips made by US titan Nvidia – the world’s most valuable company – are used to train and run AI systems.
In response to Washington’s export restrictions, China has been accelerating efforts to develop its own AI chips and break away from reliance on US hardware.
This month, Taiwanese Deputy Economic Affairs Minister Ho Chin-tsang said Taiwan and the United States “will work to implement our shared export control goals”, but the government has not provided details.
Chris McGuire, an expert on China and AI at the US-based Council on Foreign Relations, said chip smuggling was a “really significant problem” in Taiwan and Southeast Asia.
“It’s really, really important that allies align with the US on all of these policies and also legal authorities,” McGuire, who worked at the National Security Council under former US President Joe Biden, told a forum in Taipei this month.
“It’s not a criminal violation in Taiwan to export AI chips to China, obviously it is under US law, but it’s not under Taiwanese law. That needs to change, right?”
Super Micro Computer, Albatron Technology and Chief Telecom have said separately they are cooperating with investigators. Their shares have seen sharp falls this week.
Prosecutors say it is too early to know if the case is linked to a Nvidia chip smuggling case involving Super Micro Computer employees in the US.
A US indictment unsealed in March showed employees of the company allegedly raked in billions of dollars by diverting Nvidia AI chips to China in breach of export controls.
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