Two Chinese nationals have been arrested on the grounds of allegedly exporting AI chips out of the US to China without the licenses now legally required. The pair are specifically charged with violating the Export Control Reform Act, which could lead to a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
According to the US Department of Justice, Chuan Geng and Shiwei Yang are accused of exporting "tens of millions of dollars’ worth of sensitive microchips used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications" between October 2022 and July 2025. Last week, Chuan Geng and Shiwei Yang's phones were seized, surfacing allegedly incriminating communications "about shipping export-controlled chips to China through Malaysia to evade U.S. export laws."
