Overview

• Chinese engineers transported more than 80 terabytes of AI training data in hard drives to Malaysia and ran models on roughly 300 rented servers equipped with Nvidia’s advanced chips.
• The Trump administration scrapped proposed country-specific limits on American chip sales in May and issued new guidance urging companies to prevent misuse of their hardware.
• Chinese firms use layers of intermediaries and register subsidiaries in Malaysia and Singapore to obscure end users from U.S. Commerce Department audits.
• Malaysia’s AI chip imports from Taiwan surged to $3.4 billion in March and April, reflecting Southeast Asia’s rapid expansion of data-center capacity.
• Nvidia’s recent chip deals with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE have created additional pathways for Chinese developers to access U.S. technology through Middle Eastern hubs.