The Department of Justice accused two Chinese nationals of illegally exporting advanced microchips to China

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Tuesday that two Chinese nationals named Shiwei Yang and Chuan Geng were formally charged with illegally shipping tens of millions of dollars worth of microchips used in various artificial intelligence (AI). The agency detailed that the two subjects were accused of "knowingly and deliberately" exporting various chips to their country from October 2022 to July 2025. Geng and Yang allegedly exported each of the chips - including Nvidia H100 chips - to the Asian giant without obtaining the required license from the Department of Commerce.

In its statement, the DOJ explained that the two Chinese nationals - both of whom resided in California - eexecuted these operations thanks to their company ALX Solutions, which was founded in 2022after the White House imposed numerous restrictions on the export of advanced computer chips to China. The agency explained that the company went so far as to ship such restricted technology on nearly 30 occasionsto different freight forwarding companies in Singapore and Malaysia, which would have redirected the shipments to China.

The company received payments from Hong Kong and China

The agency also detailed that Yang and Geng are alleged to have deliberately mislabeled one of their shipments as "subject to federal laws and regulations" in order to avoid receiving an inspection, although the chip in question did require a license. According to the complaint, that chip was "the most powerful GPU chip on the market" and was "designed specifically for artificial intelligence applications, such as those used to develop autonomous cars, medical diagnostic systems and other AI-driven applications."

In its statement, the DOJ explained that the two defendants' company, which was based in California, received several payments from companies based in Hong Kong and China, adding that none of the discovered payments were made by freight forwarding companies in Singapore and Malaysia. Also, the DOJ reported that Yang and Geng were charged with violating the Export Control Reform Law, which is a felony that carries prison terms of up to 20 years.