KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysian customs authorities announced Friday that they had stopped an attempt to smuggle advanced artificial intelligence chips worth 52.9 million ringgit — approximately $12.93 million — through the nation’s primary international airport earlier this month.
The seizure comes after Malaysia put export controls in place last year on high-performance chips of U.S. origin. That move came after pressure from the United States, which has been working to prevent advanced chips critical to AI development from reaching China.
On June 5, inspectors at Kuala Lumpur International Airport discovered 72 server units packed with advanced AI chips that had been flown into the airport’s free trade zone. The airport’s customs director, Zulkifli Muhammad, shared the details with reporters.
According to Zulkifli, early investigation results indicated the servers were destined to be re-exported to another country in Asia — a transaction that would have required a permit under Malaysia’s Strategic Trade Act.
The shipment had been falsely labeled as “computer components” in an apparent effort to avoid scrutiny, Zulkifli explained. Malaysia was listed as a transit point as a way to work around export restrictions before the goods reached their final destination. He declined to provide additional specifics, noting that an investigation is still underway.
The servers have been confiscated, and a Malaysian company that was involved in arranging the shipment has been asked to cooperate with investigators, Zulkifli added.
This is not the first time Malaysia has been linked to potential chip smuggling activity. Last year, the country investigated reports that a Chinese company operating within Malaysia was using servers equipped with Nvidia chips for AI-related work, though no evidence of illegal semiconductor trading was found.
In a related development from last August, the United States charged two Chinese nationals with illegally shipping tens of millions of dollars’ worth of AI chips from their El Monte-based company to China, allegedly using shipping and freight forwarding companies in Malaysia and Singapore as intermediaries.
In an unrelated case at the same airport, Zulkifli said customs officers on June 10 also seized six boxes containing 4,760 cartridges of vape liquid valued at 1.19 million ringgit (approximately $290,953). The cartridges were hidden inside the casings of central processing units.
Testing revealed the vape liquid had been laced with methamphetamine. The shipment was reportedly bound for export to a neighboring country, though Zulkifli did not identify which one.
($1 = 4.0900 ringgit)
