Two Chinese nationals in California accused of illegally shipping Nvidia AI chips to China

Two Chinese nationals were arrested in California and charged with illegally shipping tens of millions of dollars' worth of AI chips to China, including Nvidia H100s, the U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday.

Chuan Geng, 28, of Pasadena, and Shiwei Yang, 28, of El Monte, exported the advanced Nvidia chips and other technology to China from October 2022 through July 2025 without obtaining the required licenses from the U.S. Commerce Department, a criminal complaint says.

According to the complaint, Geng and Yang's El Monte-based company, ALX Solutions Inc, was founded in 2022, shortly after the U.S. imposed sweeping export controls on technology to China and began to require licenses for the chips.

A spokesperson for Nvidia declined to comment. —Reuters