Malaysia is trying to find out whether any chips brought in by SpeedMatrix were later re-exported to other countries. The Malaysia’s trade ministry said so on Friday, Reuters reported.
SpeedMatrix is the local unit of Megaspeed, a Singapore-based cloud computing firm. There are allegations that the company may have been used to get around US export controls on advanced semiconductors.
The scandal behind the scrutiny
Megaspeed and its subsidiaries are under scrutiny after reports that former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had an affair with Alice Huang, a former Megaspeed executive. US authorities suspect her of spying for China.
What the ministry said
The trade ministry stated it never cleared MegaSpeed International Pte Ltd or SpeedMatrix. It said any verification visits to their local facilities were part of its routine monitoring of the data centre sector.
As a data centre tenant, SpeedMatrix brought its own servers and AI chips into Malaysia for its operations, the ministry said. It is now working with the customs agency to establish whether any of those chips were re-exported. It is also checking whether any re-export followed the law.
Rules on US-origin chips
Malaysia imposed export controls last year on the movement of high-performance AI chips of US origin. A trade permit is required to re-export, transship or move them in transit. Giving false information to customs about such goods is also an offence, the ministry said.
Working with other countries
The ministry said it is working closely with authorities in Singapore and the United States. It is considering further measures to tighten controls where needed.
Malaysia does not enforce export controls that other countries impose on their own. But the ministry expects every company operating in Malaysia to take such controls into account in its international business. It said it will take stern action against any firm found to have broken Malaysian law.
