US Detains Two Men Accused of Smuggling Nvidia AI Gear to China

The US Department of Justice has detained two men for allegedly violating export control laws by attempting to smuggle at least $160 million worth of Nvidia Corp. AI chips to China. A third, the owner of a Houston company, has already pleaded guilty.

The department alleges the men operated a smuggling network that spanned the Houston business, run by Alan Hao Hsu, and several warehouses across the US, which replaced Nvidia labels from H100 and H200 AI chips with the fictional “Sandkyan” brand before shipping them. Fanyue Gong, a Chinese citizen residing in Brooklyn, New York, and Benlin Yuan, a Canadian from Ontario, are alleged to have conspired with employees of a Hong Kong-based logistics company and a China-based AI technology company to circumvent US export controls.