Malaysia trade ministry probing reports of Chinese firm's use of Nvidia AI chips
KUALA LUMPUR :Malaysia's trade ministry is verifying media reports that a Chinese company in the country is using servers equipped with Nvidia and artificial intelligence chips for large language models training, it said on Wednesday.
The ministry "is still in the process of verifying the matter with relevant agencies if any domestic law or regulation has been breached," it said in a statement.
The Wall Street Journal had earlier reported that Chinese engineers had flown into Malaysia in early March carrying suitcases filled with hard drives.
It said they sought to build AI models in Malaysian data centres containing servers using Nvidia chips.
The Biden administration had put in place curbs on the export of sophisticated AI chips. Malaysia was in a second tier of countries subject to restrictions, with caps on the number of chips that it could receive.
The Trump administration has since scrapped the curbs, but it has issued guidance that U.S. companies need to take steps to prevent the use of U.S. AI chips in Chinese AI model training.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNA
an hour ago
- CNA
Malaysia pushing to fast track ASEAN Power Grid for greater cross-border electricity trade
Malaysia is pushing to fast track the ASEAN Power Grid, designed to facilitate greater cross-border electricity trade. This comes amid the growing need to decarbonise and ensure sustainable energy supply. As ASEAN chair, Malaysia is eager to have all the bloc's members endorse a single road map to realise a fully interconnected grid system by 2045. Melissa Goh reports from the Energy Asia conference in Kuala Lumpur.
CNA
an hour ago
- CNA
Intel appoints engineering hires as part of CEO Tan's turnaround strategy
Intel hired three chip industry executives in engineering and networking roles on Wednesday, as part of CEO Lip-Bu Tan's plans to overhaul top management and turn around the embattled chipmaker. Tan's plans include trimming the company's large workforce, hiring new leadership, focusing on customer satisfaction and ensuring the foundry business succeeds. Tan started to flatten Intel's leadership team since taking over as top boss in March with many important chip groups reporting directly into him, including sales veteran Greg Ernst, who was appointed chief revenue officer. Ernst previously served as Intel's head of U.S. sales and marketing operations. In keeping with its plans to become more engineering-focused, the company also tapped Srinivasan Iyengar, Jean-Didier Allegrucci and Shailendra Desai to lead engineering roles. "Greg, Srini, J-D and Shailendra are highly accomplished leaders with strong reputations across our ecosystem and they will each play important roles as we position our business for the future," Tan said. Iyengar joined Intel from Cadence Design Systems and will lead a new customer engineering center, while Allegrucci, a former Rain AI executive, will manage the development of the AI System on Chip engineering. Desai, who joined Intel from Google, will head the development of new AI chip architectures. Iyengar will report into Tan, while Allegrucci and Desai will report into Sachin Katti, Intel's chief technology and AI officer. Intel has also reshuffled its board to make it more chip-industry-focused. Three board members did not stand for reelection at its 2025 annual meeting.
Independent Singapore
3 hours ago
- Independent Singapore
CCCS flags Agoda's 'problematic' website and app features that could mislead Singapore consumers
SINGAPORE: The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) has raised concerns over Agoda's 'problematic' website and mobile app features, saying it could mislead Singapore consumers. One concern the commission pointed out was Agoda's use of the 'Best Match' search results. While the results suggested listings were based 'solely' on a user's search criteria, CCCS found the rankings were also influenced by how much Agoda would earn from the properties. The default ranking of search results was also flagged, as Agoda's Terms of Use states that accommodation providers could boost their visibility by paying Agoda as part of a 'Preferred Partner' programme or by sponsoring their own listings. Another feature flagged was the 'Agoda Preferred' badge shown on some listings as 'trusted and verified properties' that have a long-standing relationship with the platform and 'meet certain criteria'. CCCS pointed out that Agoda does not clearly explain what these criteria are. It also did not disclose that businesses have to pay Agoda more to get the badge. In addition, accommodations with the 'cheapest x-star stay' label were not actually the lowest-priced option when search results were sorted by price for the same star rating, misleading users who are looking for the cheapest option available. CCCS also expressed concern that the five-minute countdown timer that appears during the booking process could create a false sense of urgency for users. 'Agoda has since voluntarily provided an undertaking and cooperated with CCCS to make changes to its website and mobile application to ensure that consumers get accurate and adequate information to consider before they make their purchases,' CCCS said. The 'Best Match' label was replaced with 'Our Picks' to better reflect the platform's recommendations. It also now clearly discloses that 'Agoda Preferred' properties pay an additional commission. In addition, Agoda has extended its website countdown timer to 20 minutes, matching the app, and removed its 'cheapest x-star stay' label to avoid confusing consumers. /TISG Read also: HPL receives green light to acquire entire Concorde Hotel and Shopping Mall strata area at S$821M Featured image by Depositphotos (for illustration purposes only)
