Malaysia will tighten the flow of browser machines containing NVIDIA chips after a case of smuggling them to China through the country was detected by Singapore. According to a report by the Financial Times, which quoted the statement of the Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Tengku Zafrul Aziz – the action was taken after Malaysia received pressure from the United States
He and Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo have set up a special team to tighten the laws surrounding the Malaysian data center industry. Every NVIDIA chip sales stream will now be monitored more closely to prevent a repeat of the $390 million (~RM 1.73 billion) browser machine smuggling incident.
Three individuals were charged by Singapore earlier this month for their smuggling activities believed to have caused machines with NVIDIA chips to fall into the hands of DeepSeek. As Tier 2 countries, Malaysia and Singapore have already been subject to a complete access ban on AI chips by the United States.
Smuggling incidents into Tier 3 countries such as China, which are completely banned from access, will have a negative impact on Malaysia and Singapore, which have aspirations to become data centres in the Southeast Asian region.