The US government is reportedly investigating Kuehne and Nagel’s subsidiary Apex Logistics for possible involvement in the smuggling of AI chips to China.
The US has introduced export restrictions on Nvidia’s most modern chips since 2022, but authorities are now looking into whether they have entered China through Apex Logistics, said Air Cargo News‘ sister magazine, Nieuwsblad Transport, citing Bloomberg.
According to Bloomberg, the investigation revolves around the question of whether Apex violated US export restrictions when transporting AI systems from Super Micro Computer.
Nvidia’s chips are considered the standard for training and running AI models and companies such as Super Micro process them in servers.
According to sources, Apex would have facilitated a route in which the servers went from Taiwan to the US, and then ended up in Hong Kong via an Asian destination.
Apex says it is aware of the concerns in Washington surrounding “a small number of shipments that Apex carried out in 2024 that may have involved equipment that was eventually sent to banned locations.”
It is unclear what quantities of Nvidia chips are involved in the investigation by the US.
The US wants to stop the supply of advanced chip technology to China for fear that the country will gain military advantage from it.
Since the introduction of the export restrictions, a network for shadow trade has been created that, according to the US government, has still resulted in billions of dollars worth of Nvidia chips being transported to China.
