Taiwan said to suspect Nvidia chips Smuggled to China via Japan - Taipei Times

Taiwanese prosecutors suspect that three individuals smuggled at least one shipment of NVIDIA artificial intelligence chips to China by first exporting them to Japan, before routing them through Hong ... Read original →

This AI chip smuggling case—rerouted via Japan to mainland China—exposes acute vulnerabilities in sub-3nm semiconductor supply chains. Technically, NVIDIA’s H100-class chips rely on TSMC’s EUV-enabled nodes, a capability China cannot replicate due to ASML export curbs, fueling illicit diversion. Compliance-wise, U.S. extraterritorial controls are inflating documentation and logistics costs for Taiwan-based ODMs like Quanta and Supermicro, potentially triggering customer reallocation. Strategically, Huawei Ascend and Cambricon may accelerate domestic substitution, yet still lag in compute density. Over the next 12–24 months, Washington is likely to mandate ‘chip passports’ with embedded hardware-level tracking. Meanwhile, TSMC will expedite foundry diversification across the U.S., Japan, and Europe, while Taiwan, China’s role as the world’s advanced-node hub becomes increasingly enmeshed in America’s tech containment architecture.