Singapore grants bail for Nvidia chip smugglers in alleged $390M fraud | TechCrunch

A judge in Singapore granted bail to three men suspected of deceiving suppliers of server computers that may contain Nvidia chips affected by U.S. export rules that bar the sale of them to certain countries, as a route to halting them being sold to organizations in China.

The move comes nearly two weeks after the three men in the city-state were charged with smuggling Nvidia chips and committing fraud against Dell and Super Micro by falsely stating where the servers would be located.  

Singapore prosecutors said the fraud case involved servers provided by Singaporean companies and then moved to Malaysia, with transactions totaling about $390 million, per a report by Reuters. It is unclear what the final destination would be for those servers.

The bail for the two Singaporean men was set at S$800,000 ($600,000) and S$600,000 each, while the third man, a Chinese national, had his bail set at S$1 million. The next court hearing will be held on May 2.

The prosecution requested an eight-week delay to complete investigations and asked for specific conditions, including barring the men from airports or border checkpoints and prohibiting them from discussing the case if they are released on bail, per Bloomberg. The Chinese man reportedly must wear an electronic monitoring device.

According to Nvidia’s latest annual report, Singapore accounted for 18% of revenue in the fiscal year that ended on January 28, despite shipments to the country making up less than 2% of sales.

China’s DeepSeek attracted global attention in the AI industry in January due to its advanced technology and cost-effective solutions, leading to heightened concerns around how and where it sources chips. DeepSeek’s AI is powered by Nvidia’s chips, despite efforts to restrict exports and prevent the technology from being used in China.

Malaysia said last week that it would take “necessary action” against Malaysian companies implicated in a fraud case related to the alleged transfer of Nvidia chips from Singapore to China.