Sanction Holes: US Investigates NVIDIA Chip Smuggling to China via Thailand

The technological blockade is springing a serious leak. On May 8, 2026, Bloomberg reported on a large-scale investigation by US authorities: top-tier NVIDIA chips and Super Micro servers are likely being massively supplied to China through shadow schemes in Thailand.

Alibaba Corporation is named as one of the ultimate recipients of this computing power. Against the backdrop of the recent release of the Chinese DeepSeek V4 model (which is natively optimized for Huawei Ascend processors) and Beijing's strict bans on American investments, smuggling remains the main way for Chinese Big Tech to maintain parity in training heavy LLMs. Strict US export restrictions have not stopped the development of neural networks in Asia; they have merely spawned the highest-margin black market of the decade. The sanctions war in AI infrastructure is transitioning into a format of shadow supplies.

Source: Bloomberg / Reuters