Malaysia to tighten semiconductor regulations under US pressure FT reports

KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia plans to tighten regulations on semiconductors as it comes under US pressure to stanch the flow to China of chips crucial to the development of artificial intelligence (AI),the Financial Times reported on March 23.

Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz said the US government was demanding Malaysia closely track the movement of high-end Nvidia chips that enter the country over suspicions that many are ending up in China, according to the report.

“(The US is) asking us to make sure that we monitor every shipment that comes to Malaysia when it involves Nvidia chips,” Datuk Seri Zafrul told the newspaper.

“They want us to make sure that servers end up in the data centres that they’re supposed to and not suddenly move to another ship.”

Nvidia did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The US is investigating if Chinese AI firm DeepSeek, whose AI model’s performance rocked the tech world in January, has been using banned US chips.

Malaysia is currently investigating if local laws were breached in the shipment of servers linked to a Singapore fraud case, as they may have contained advanced chips subject to US export controls.

Singapore prosecutors told a court earlier in March that the case, in which Singapore-based firms have been accused of fraudulently supplying US servers to Malaysia, involved transactions worth US$390 million (S$522 million).

Singapore media reports have linked the case to the possible transfer of Nvidia’s AI chips to DeepSeek. REUTERS

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