Federal authorities arrested an East Bay man over an alleged scheme to evade national security-related technology export controls and send powerful, highly sought after computer chips made by Santa Clara company Nvidia to China.
Chinese citizen Cham Li, 38, also known as “Tony Li,” of San Leandro, conspired with two U.S. citizens and another Chinese national to falsify paperwork, make fake contracts, and mislead the American government, as they illegally shipped hundreds of the computer processors to China via Malaysia, and sought to send others via Thailand, the U.S. Department of Justice claimed this week.
Li could not be reached for comment. The Justice Department did not respond to questions about whether he was kept in custody after his arrest Nov. 19. His three alleged co-conspirators were also arrested this week, the department said in a news release.
Nvidia’s computer-processor chips have become highly prized amid a global race for supremacy in artificial intelligence. China aims to become the world’s AI leader by 2030, the Nov. 13 indictment against the four men said. The country is using its AI capabilities to modernize its military and design and test weapons, the indictment said.
Nvidia is not accused of any wrongdoing in the case.
In October 2022, the U.S. tightened export controls on certain advanced computer components, imposing licensing requirements that covered four high-end Nvidia chips, the indictment noted.
Li, along with a Hong Kong-born U.S. citizen and a 45-year-old Chinese citizen on a student visa who both lived in Tampa, Florida, plus a U.S. citizen from Alabama, launched the alleged conspiracy in September 2023, the indictment claimed.
Li and two others sought customers for chips in China, who then placed orders, the indictment alleged. The group shipped 400 Nvidia A100 processors to China via Malaysia between October 2024 and January 2025, the indictment claimed. The men allegedly tried to send 50 Nvidia H200 processors and 10 Hewlett Packard supercomputers containing Nvidia H100 chips to China through Thailand but “were disrupted by law enforcement,” the Justice Department said.
The indictment and the department’s news release did not make clear who the purported customers were for the chips, and what connections they may have had to the Chinese military.
The men received nearly $4 million in wire transfers from China in connection with the alleged scheme, the indictment claimed.
Li is scheduled to be arraigned Dec. 4 in Tampa. He and the others face decades in prison on charges of smuggling, and conspiracy to violate export controls and to launder money, the Justice Department said.