Kuala Lumpur: The government is taking necessary actions to establish whether Malaysian laws had been breached in the alleged shipment of United States (US)-sanctioned artificial intelligence (AI) chips from Singapore to Malaysia, said the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI).

According to BERNAMA News Agency, the ministry reiterated that Malaysia adheres to and honours all established multilaterally-agreed legal provisions on trade, and has a robust system in place to monitor and control exports, transit, transhipment, and brokering of strategic items under the Strategic Trade Act 2010 (STA 2010).

MITI emphasized that Malaysia stands firm against any individual or company that attempts to circumvent export controls or engage in illicit trade activities. The ministry also stated its commitment to facilitating legitimate trade and fostering a secure and responsible investment destination, ensuring that all technology-related investments align with international best practices and comply with multilaterally agreed laws and regulations.

Concurrently, MITI will continue to work closely with the US and Singapore to find effective ways to address the issue of the trade involving US-sanctioned chips. While Malaysia maintains a neutral position on unilateral sanctions, companies operating in Malaysia are advised to be aware of other countries’ unilateral export controls which apply to their international business activities to avoid such sanctions on their goods or services.

On Monday, it was reported that Nvidia’s AI chips in servers linked to a fraud case were moved to Malaysia from Singapore. The chips were embedded in servers supplied by Dell and Supermicro to Singapore-based companies before they went to Malaysia, according to a Singapore news report.