(Marlena Sloss/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Federal investigators have arrested two Chinese nationals accused of smuggling Nvidia’s RTX 4090 and 5090 graphics cards and H100 AI GPUs into China, in violation of US export controls.
The 28-year-old suspects, Chuan Geng and Shiwei Yang, allegedly carried out the smuggling scheme from their Los Angeles area company, ALX Solutions, the Justice Department says.
The smuggling activities occurred from October 2022 to July 2025. The criminal complaint says the two suspects were found shipping Nvidia products, including PNY-branded RTX 4090 gaming graphics cards and the H100, to Malaysia in December 2024.
The shipment “contained 117 Graphic Cards with a value of $176,500 and two Graphical Processing Unit Base Boards, with a value of $4,000,” the complaint says.
A federal investigator with the Commerce Department wrote that neither Geng nor Yang applied for a license to export the products to China. Instead, the shipment was labeled under a different export code, EAR99, which covers "low-technology consumer goods and [does] not require a license in most situations."
The US has blocked shipments of RTX 4090 and other high-end Nvidia GPUs to China to prevent the Chinese government from securing advanced chips to bolster its AI ambitions.
The 33-page criminal complaint adds that law enforcement searched ALX Solutions' office last week and seized Geng and Yang's phones, which allegedly reveal their scheme to ship "export-controlled chips to China through Malaysia to evade US export laws."
In addition, an Excel file found in Yang’s Google Drive account mentions shipments containing Gigabyte 4090, TUF 4090, and MSI 4090. "The other seven shipments list the items as '4090' and '5090,'" the complaint adds.
(Credit: DOJ)The case offers a glimpse at the ongoing GPU smuggling trade. The Financial Times estimates that at least $1 billion in Nvidia AI chips were shipped to the country this year, despite the Trump administration’s effort to prevent them.
Geng and Yang allegedly secured the H100 GPUs from Super Micro, a US server provider. The criminal complaint says one invoice shows ALX Solutions paid $28 million for the GPUs, with Super Micro believing the shipment was headed to a company in Singapore. However, that company didn't exist, according to federal investigators. The suspects also sourced some GPUs from MiTAC Computing, another server provider.
The criminal complaint adds that ALX Solutions received wire funds from various Hong Kong and Chinese companies, which were likely acting as intermediaries. Seized Google records also show instances of Chinese companies contacting ALX about buying Nvidia GPUs.
The Justice Department announced the arrests as the Trump administration explores whether a location-tracking system should be installed on Nvidia’s AI chips to prevent such smuggling to China. But on Tuesday, Nvidia pushed back on the idea and suggested that any location tracking would amount to installing a backdoor into the GPUs.
In response to the arrests, Nvidia told PCMag: "This case demonstrates that smuggling is a nonstarter. We primarily sell our products to well-known partners, including OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), who help us ensure that all sales comply with US export control rules. Even relatively small exporters and shipments are subject to thorough review and scrutiny, and any diverted products would have no service, support, or updates."