Two Chinese nationals charged with illegally exporting Nvidia AI chips
Two Chinese nationals were arrested in California and charged with illegally exporting tens of millions of dollars' worth of Nvidia H100 AI chips and graphics cards to China between October 2022 and July 2025 without required U.S. government licenses. Their company ALX Solutions purchased over 200 of the chips from a US supplier while falsely declaring the end users were in Singapore and Japan.
What happened
Chuan Geng, 28, of Pasadena, and Shiwei Yang, 28, of El Monte, were arrested in California and charged with illegally exporting Nvidia H100 chips and other technology to China from October 2022 through July 2025 without obtaining required licenses from the U.S. Commerce Department.
Their El Monte-based company, ALX Solutions Inc, was founded in 2022, shortly after the U.S. imposed sweeping export controls on technology to China. Over 20 shipments from ALX Solutions went to shipping and freight forwarding companies in Singapore and Malaysia, which are often used as transshipment points for illegal goods to China.
Records show that from at least August 2023 to July 2024, ALX Solutions bought over 200 Nvidia H100 chips from San Jose-based Super Micro Computer, declaring that the end users were in Singapore and Japan. The pair are also accused of illegally shipping Nvidia video graphics cards known as PNY GE Force RTX 4090, which also require a license for export to China.
Reported impact
Tens of millions of dollars' worth of advanced AI chips and technology were illegally exported to China.
Governance controls
The U.S. imposed sweeping export controls on technology to China and began to require licenses for advanced chips, which were in place when ALX Solutions was founded in 2022.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.