As it became known yesterday, Singaporean authorities have established that the intermediaries suspected of smuggling server equipment with Nvidia accelerators to China sent it to Malaysia. A member of the government of the latter hastened to declare that the country’s authorities will provide all necessary assistance, but so far they do not have data that could help the investigation.
Image source: NVIDIA
According to CNBC, Malaysian Trade Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz made it clear that the country’s authorities have no reason to believe that local companies are not using some of the chips they receive from suppliers. As noted yesterday, “smugglers” often order a batch of servers that exceeds their actual needs, and sell the surplus equipment to China, using additional intermediaries if necessary.
Malaysian companies whose guilt is proven will be punished accordingly, the minister said. His Singaporean colleague noted yesterday that Malaysia might not have been the final destination of the batch of servers based on Nvidia accelerators banned from delivery to China. The investigation has not yet been able to establish the entire route of the equipment.
According to the Malaysian minister, such equipment is usually imported into the country by foreign companies such as Microsoft, AWS and Google. The authorities have no reason to believe that some of this equipment is not actually used in the country. Information is currently being requested from the relevant importers to determine the location of all equipment declared at the border. So far, there have been no such precedents in Malaysia, the official added. Consultations with the Singaporean side are ongoing and data exchange has been established.