The US is willing to do anything for advanced chips not to reach China. And Malaysia is an obstacle

Malaysia is in the spotlight of the US. The administration led by Donald Trump has suspected for many months that Chinese companies and research centers dedicated to artificial intelligence (AI) acquire the most advanced NVIDIA GPUs through Singapore and Malaysian intermediary companies. In fact, this possibility It is no longer just a hypothesis. And it is that the Singapore government has confirmed that it has identified those responsible for diverting to China, and presumably towards the parent company of Deepseekservers that contain the high performance GPUs produced by NVIDIA.

This information was revealed at the end of last February by the Channel News Asia television channel, and shortly after the Minister of Internal Affairs and Justice of Singapore, K. Shanmugam, He confirmed it. Interestingly, it did not realize what the GPUs that incorporate these machines are, but made public a very important fact: the name of the companies that manufactured the servers. And they are Two US clients from Nvidia Very important: Dell Technologies and Super Micro Computer.

For Malaysia, the eeuu is not an option

Malaysia is a global power in packaging and verification of integrated avant -garde circuits. In August 2023 we had the opportunity to check it first hand because Intel invited us to Visit the chips factories that has in this country of Southeast Asia. These plants reside in Penang and Kulim, two exotic and beautiful cities located north of Kuala Lumpur, and are specialized in the processing of silicon wafers that come from Intel factories in Israel and Ireland.

Malaysia is a very attractive country not only for Intel and other manufacturers of American semiconductors; It is also for Chinese and Taiwan chips companies. Its appeal lies in four fundamental pillars: has a stable supply chainnotable technological development, makes available to these very qualified personal companies and their production costs are moderate. For integrated circuit manufacturers, a country with these characteristics is a safe bet.

Intel has been present in Malaysia since 1972, and during the more than five decades that have since elapsed its infrastructure in this Asian country has not stopped growing. His model has worked so well that other large companies in the semiconductor industry have adopted it. One of them is the Chinese giant Huatian Technology, and many other Chinese manufacturers of integrated circuits are diverting the packaging of their chips to Malaysia to protect themselves from the uncertainty that has triggered the tension between the US and China.

The chips industry is one of the engines of the Malaysian economy, and, as we have just seen, the US is an essential actor for this country. For this reason, Malaysia’s government is interested in doing everything in his hand to Do not get into the US administration. The presumable participation of some of its companies in the export of avant -garde chips to China places it in a delicate position that, for more inri, has just complicated even more. And it is that a company from China is suspicious of training AI models in Malaysia infrastructure and using Nvidia hardware.

According to Reuters The Ministry of Investments, Commerce and Industry of Malaysia is investigating whether this or any other company housed in its territory has violated some local law. Interestingly, this institution is analyzing a report that argues that Four Chinese citizens They traveled from Beijing to Kuala Lumpur, each transporting several hard drives with dozens of calculus leaves and images, with the purpose of training an AI model into 300 servers with Nvidia chips.

Malaysia is not subject to sanctions or restrictions by the US government, and it is evident that this Asian country is interested in its relationship with the Trump administration be as cordial as possible. What is not clear is that he gets unscathed from his involuntary mediation between China and the US.

More information | Reuters

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