Chinese Nationals Used US Firm to Illegally Export Chip Tech to China, US Says
The U.S. last week arrested and accused two Chinese nationals of using a California-based company to illegally export tens of millions of dollars' worth of advanced AI semiconductors to China, including by first transshipping the chips through Malaysia and Singapore.
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Chuan Geng, a U.S. resident, and Shiwei Yang, who DOJ said is living in the U.S. illegally after overstaying her visa, were charged with violating the Export Control Reform Act. Both were arrested Aug. 2 and face a maximum 20-year prison sentence, DOJ said Aug. 5.
The agency said the two used their El Monte-based company, ALX Solutions Inc., to “knowingly and willfully” export sensitive graphic processing units from the U.S. to China without a license from the Bureau of Industry and Security. Geng and Yang founded ALX Solutions shortly after BIS began requiring licenses for the chips, DOJ said. It said some of those chips are known as the “most powerful GPU chip on the market” and are used for AI applications in self-driving cars, and medical diagnosis systems, but DOJ didn’t name the manufacturer.
ALX Solutions exported the chips from October 2022 to July 2025, DOJ said. The agency said it reviewed export and business records and found at least 20 of the company’s shipments that involved exports from the U.S. to shipping and freight-forwarding companies in Singapore and Malaysia, which “commonly are used as transshipment points to conceal illegal shipments to China.” DOJ said ALX Solutions never received payments from those companies, but it instead received “numerous payments” from companies based in Hong Kong and China, including a $1 million payment from a China-based company in January 2024.
The agency also pointed to an instance in December 2024 in which ALX Solutions sent a shipment and “falsely labeled that it was sending GPUs subject to federal laws and regulations.” But DOJ said the shipment contained chips that needed a license before being exported to China, and the company never applied for or obtained a license.
U.S. authorities searched ALX Solutions’ office last week and seized phones belonging to Geng and Yang, and those phones “revealed incriminating communications.” That included information “about shipping export-controlled chips to China through Malaysia to evade U.S. export laws,” DOJ said.
DOJ said Geng was released on $250,000 bond, and Yeng’s detention hearing is scheduled for Aug. 12. Arraignment is scheduled for Sept. 11. They haven’t yet entered pleas.