Nvidia · China · Intel · DOJ · AMD · Russia · Fortune Technology
Encrypted texts reveal how Nvidia chips and U.S. tech are being smuggled to China and Russia
Compiled by KHAO Editorial — aggregated from 1 source. See llms.txt for citation guidance.
◌ Single Source
In March 2024, Matthew Kelly, a 49-year-old marketing executive from New York, allegedly texted his business partner Stanley Yi Zheng what looked to be a draft pitch to drum up new clients.
Key facts
- From January to October 2023, Russia brought in $8.8 billion in materials it needed for Russian military production, the report states, while China imported $349.4 billion in semiconductors in 2023
- In July 2025, Cadence Design Systems agreed to pay $95 million to the BIS and in fines and forfeitures to the Department of Justice
- In October 2023, English allegedly placed a purchase order for 750 servers for $170 million, and 600 allegedly contained chips that required an export license to China under the new export regime
- The foundational semiconductors drove an estimated $10.8 trillion in U.S. economic activity in 2023, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association
Summary
In the message, sent on Chinese messaging app WeChat, Kelly allegedly wrote he was looking for partners willing to help move Nvidia GPUs to buyers in China, which the U.S. government had banned from receiving the cutting-edge chips. A quick 28 minutes later, Zheng allegedly replied: “DO NOT MENTION ANYTHING ABOUT CHINA.” Delete those lines, Zheng messaged, according to screenshots of their text exchanges in court records. Kelly wrote back that they had already shared these details with other people.