Two Chinese nationals—one of whom was in the U.S. unlawfully—have been arrested on federal charges for allegedly exporting tens of millions of dollars’ worth of sensitive microchips used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday in a press release.
Chuan Geng, 28, of Pasadena, and Shiwei Yang, 28, of El Monte, are accused of violating the Export Control Reform Act, a felony offense that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. On Saturday, Geng voluntarily surrendered to federal authorities, and on the same day, Yang was arrested.
According to an affidavit filed with the complaint, the defendants allegedly used their company, ALX Solutions Inc., to knowingly export sensitive U.S. technology to China, including graphic processing units (GPUs)—critical components in modern computing—without obtaining the necessary license or authorization from the U.S. Department of Commerce.
