Organised AI chip smuggling to China has been tracked out of countries including Malaysia, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates, the source said. The Commerce Department and DeepSeek did not immediately return requests for comment.

US officials are deep into an investigation to find out if Chinese AI startup DeepSeek found a backdoor route to Nvidia’s high-end chips through Singapore, evading American export bans.

Export controls need to be tightened after revelations the Chinese company used Nvidia technology, the leaders of a congressional committee said.