News DeepSeek GPU smuggling probe shows Nvidia's Singapore GPU sales are 28% of its revenue, but only 1% are delivered to the country: Report

[Admin]

Reports show that nearly 28% of Nvidia's revenue in 2024 came from Singapore despite the country only receiving around $600 million worth of GPUs at around the same time.

DeepSeek GPU smuggling probe shows Nvidia's Singapore GPU sales are 28% of its revenue, but only 1% are delivered to the country: Report : Read more

 

[Gururu]

Yeah, I don't believe for one second that Jensen had any idea who was behind a whopping quarter of their sales...

 

[Taslios]

... hmm wouldn't it be crazy if the US banned the export of Nvidia GPUs due to violating export restrictions?

They came down on DeepCool for selling to Russia through a 3rd party contractor.

Course that was under a different administration so who knows, but I suspect the US Gov could hit Nvidia with some rather huge penalties as there is absolutely no way they didn't know they were bypassing regulatory bans.

 

[Pierce2623]

Uhh of course companies in Singapore are doing that. There’s no consequences to them other than possiblylosing access to Nvidia GPUs. Virtually any Asian country that isn’t opposed to China has no risk involved in doing so.

 

[Shiznizzle]

Per wikipedia Singapore has a pop of just over 6 million. I do, being a ww2 buff and virtual pilot, know that the "country" itself is aboslutely tiny and for it to produce more than 1/4 of Nvidia slaes is beyond funny.

Jenson knows who bought his chips and seems like does not care where they went as long as sales were good. Not ideal.

 

[edzieba]

What has this got to do with embargoed shipments? This just means that companies that ordered GPUs had a Singapore address as their billing address, but tells you nothing about the actual delivery destination. Same situation in Europe: you'll find the billing address is in Ireland but the shipments go to the rest of the EU or the UK. It also has nothing to do with 'smuggling', as physical devices would not be shipped to Singapore in the first place.

If merely having a different billing and shipping address were evidence of sanctions-busting or smuggling, then pretty much every business purchase would qualify, and one could do the same by setting their billing address any anywhere (e.g. CONUS) and shipping elsewhere.

 

[Shiznizzle]

What has this got to do with embargoed shipments? This just means that companies that ordered GPUs had a Singapore address as their billing address, but tells you nothing about the actual delivery destination. Same situation in Europe: you'll find the billing address is in Ireland but the shipments go to the rest of the EU or the UK. It also has nothing to do with 'smuggling', as physical devices would not be shipped to Singapore in the first place.

If merely having a different billing and shipping address were evidence of sanctions-busting or smuggling, then pretty much every business purchase would qualify, and one could do the same by setting their billing address any anywhere (e.g. CONUS) and shipping elsewhere.

This is exactly how certain nations are circumventing the rules.

While Singapore's warehouses may very well buy the cards/chips for other nations they are still responsible for 1/4 of Nvidia sales. You do the math. The numbers are simply too big for me.

 

[Konomi]

No matter how hard you try, China will find a loophole. Instead it'd be much wiser to focus on things on your own turf and harden your own infrastructure.

 

[shady28]

No matter how hard you try, China will find a loophole. Instead it'd be much wiser to focus on things on your own turf and harden your own infrastructure.

Nvidia is a US based corporation, its chips are primarily designed in Santa Clara CA, so that is part of our own infrastructure.

 

[wr3zzz]

What has this got to do with embargoed shipments? This just means that companies that ordered GPUs had a Singapore address as their billing address, but tells you nothing about the actual delivery destination. Same situation in Europe: you'll find the billing address is in Ireland but the shipments go to the rest of the EU or the UK. It also has nothing to do with 'smuggling', as physical devices would not be shipped to Singapore in the first place.

If merely having a different billing and shipping address were evidence of sanctions-busting or smuggling, then pretty much every business purchase would qualify, and one could do the same by setting their billing address any anywhere (e.g. CONUS) and shipping elsewhere.

^This. Singapore has low tax and world class infrastructure so a lot of distributors have their global or regional office there. That is where the orders are booked and it's the very definition of a trading hub. Pretty sure only a tiny bit of Walmart's orders got shipped to Arkansas.

 

[Notton]

Y'all are aware that the Port of Singapore is the world's second largest in total volume of shipments worldwide, right?
It's second only to the Port of Shanghai, and that only happened within the last decade.

 

[KyaraM]

Got to agree with most people here, the conpanies sitting in Singapore means jack in and of itself. There are many tech companies in the country, and many shipping companies as well. Hexk, it even says so in the article itself! Are some of those GPUs going to China? Probably. You can never stop that from happening. Will all of them go there? LMAO, nope. Thinking that is extremely ignorant, and borders on tinfoil hat conspiracy theory level.

 

[passivecool]

->- You do not have to have a server on-site (or in-country) to process data.
>|> tech sanctions are speed bumps, nothing more.
Where is the surprise or mystery here?

 

[nrdwka]

what a news!
as suprising, as great import spike for all central Asia countries

 

[Trake_17]

Reports show that nearly 28% of Nvidia's revenue in 2024 came from Singapore despite the country only receiving around $600 million worth of GPUs at around the same time.

DeepSeek GPU smuggling probe shows Nvidia's Singapore GPU sales are 28% of its revenue, but only 1% are delivered to the country: Report : Read more

Don't you just love the art of avoiding accountability for accusations by putting a question mark at the end of statement? Jensen Huang is a hermaphrodite? Nvidia supports child abuse? Hey, you didn't hear it from me.

 

[Konomi]

Nvidia is a US based corporation, its chips are primarily designed in Santa Clara CA, so that is part of our own infrastructure.

And yet are more concerned about what China is doing, rather than investing the time and money into improving things locally. Let's take those LA wildfires as an example - might've been less devastating if there was more thought and preparation. Shouldn't matter if Nvidia (or AMD, or Intel, or any other company) sells to China. Taking DeepSeek as an example - all that has been done with restricting sales, is forcing China to use its own knowledge. They're not dumb, that's for sure. I personally think they'll overtake the US in some areas in time, which is why I say they should be thinking about themselves and not what their "enemy" is doing, so to speak. I'm on neither side of this personally, just find it rather amusing.

 

[nogaard777]

What has this got to do with embargoed shipments? This just means that companies that ordered GPUs had a Singapore address as their billing address, but tells you nothing about the actual delivery destination. Same situation in Europe: you'll find the billing address is in Ireland but the shipments go to the rest of the EU or the UK. It also has nothing to do with 'smuggling', as physical devices would not be shipped to Singapore in the first place.

If merely having a different billing and shipping address were evidence of sanctions-busting or smuggling, then pretty much every business purchase would qualify, and one could do the same by setting their billing address any anywhere (e.g. CONUS) and shipping elsewhere.

If China sales are flat due to restrictions, and Singapore's has magically increased a hundred fold, it doesn't take a rocket surgeon to know EXACTLY where those GPUs are going. They don't NEED to be "smuggled" there because they're literally MADE THERE. Everyone knew Biden's restrictions had no teeth as long as China makes the hardware. It was a BS ban to pretend to be doing something about China's constant electronic warfare and saber rattling.

The real question is how was China allowed to still be the manufacturer for something they aren't even supposed to have. That's like hiring prison inmates to produce weapons and make pain killers.

 

[nogaard777]

Got to agree with most people here, the conpanies sitting in Singapore means jack in and of itself. There are many tech companies in the country, and many shipping companies as well. Hexk, it even says so in the article itself! Are some of those GPUs going to China? Probably. You can never stop that from happening. Will all of them go there? LMAO, nope. Thinking that is extremely ignorant, and borders on tinfoil hat conspiracy theory level.

It's no theory that the demand for GPUs has caused our current skyrocketing prices. When you realize over a quarter of all GPUs are going to a country that's not even supposed to have them you realize that affects ALL of us.

It doesn't take much digging to know where they're going when sales are restricted and it's tiny island neighbor magically increases orders a hundred fold. Then when you add in what they DO get legally that's a massive chunk of global supply they're gobbling up.

We had the same problem with mining a few years back where entire pallets and truckloads of GPUs were being sent straight to mining outfits from the manufacturers, never giving anyone else even a CHANCE to buy them on the open market. How can you not see a problem with that?

These aren't going to poor picked on gamers in China, they're going to CCP backed corporations. Regardless what country they're going to it hurts gamers. Knowing such a massive chunk is going somewhere that aren't even SUPPOSED to have them should piss you off too

 

[KyaraM]

It's no theory that the demand for GPUs has caused our current skyrocketing prices. When you realize over a quarter of all GPUs are going to a country that's not even supposed to have them you realize that affects ALL of us.

It doesn't take much digging to know where they're going when sales are restricted and it's tiny island neighbor magically increases orders a hundred fold. Then when you add in what they DO get legally that's a massive chunk of global supply they're gobbling up.

We had the same problem with mining a few years back where entire pallets and truckloads of GPUs were being sent straight to mining outfits from the manufacturers, never giving anyone else even a CHANCE to buy them on the open market. How can you not see a problem with that?

These aren't going to poor picked on gamers in China, they're going to CCP backed corporations. Regardless what country they're going to it hurts gamers. Knowing such a massive chunk is going somewhere that aren't even SUPPOSED to have them should piss you off too

You act as if those were gaming GPUs that get bought. They are not. And unlike what you seem to believe, I have high doubt those chips would have ever been made into gaming chips in the first place. If not China, then someone else would have bought those AI cards, don’t delude yourself into thinking otherwise. So it doesn't matter where they go, they will never end up in your or my system anyways, and prices for gaming cards wouldn't go down either.

 

[nogaard777]

You act as if those were gaming GPUs that get bought. They are not. And unlike what you seem to believe, I have high doubt those chips would have ever been made into gaming chips in the first place. If not China, then someone else would have bought those AI cards, don’t delude yourself into thinking otherwise. So it doesn't matter where they go, they will never end up in your or my system anyways, and prices for gaming cards wouldn't go down either.

4090s vanished off the face of the planet when the China restriction came down, causing 4080 and 4070ti prices to jump. How does that NOT effect the gamer?

 

[mvrv]

Singapore has been really going though something. I think they are generally confused what they are who they are and how the work in the world. Are they a tawain or a Dubai. Not surprised they are billed there for tax reasons it's what 7% gst vs other countries in the area maybe 30 to 100% to import something. I'm sure some creative tax dodges. If they are ended up in the PRC the question should be if it's resalers / smugglers or large scale corporate / government actions.

When the US banned the xeons used into the doe super computer in 2014 the Chinese topped the list not long after for a while. They made their own design based on MIPS. Huawei is way more advanced in all things then any western company wants to admit. And there are rumors the Chinese are working on a risc-v ai chip. They have a 7nm process that was good enough for the h100. Will be interesting to see what all comes off this.