Four charged over alleged plot to smuggle Nvidia AI chips into China

Four people have been charged in the US with plotting to funnel restricted Nvidia AI chips into China, allegedly relying on shell firms, fake invoices, and covert routing to slip cutting-edge GPUs past American export controls.

According to an indictment unsealed this week, Hon Ning "Mathew" Ho, 34, of Tampa; Brian Curtis Raymond, 46, of Huntsville, Alabama; Cham "Tony" Li, 38, of San Leandro, California; and Jing "Harry" Chen, 45, of Tampa, were arrested this week and now face federal charges tied to the unlawful export of high-end AI hardware.

Prosecutors say the quartet conspired between September 2023 and November 2025 to push restricted Nvidia GPUs into the PRC via Malaysia and Thailand, despite knowing that Commerce Department rules had tightly restricted such exports since October 2022. The DOJ says that China is aggressively pursuing US AI technology to fuel military modernization, weapons development, and large-scale surveillance systems, making the ...