Malaysia is introducing new export restrictions on U.S. AI chips in an attempt to prevent these chips from being smuggled into China.

In June 2025, it was reported that the MITI was investigating an unnamed Chinese company’s potential usage of Nvidia chips that are banned under US export controls. A report from the Wall Street Journal that same month detailed the practice of Chinese engineers flying hard drives worth of data into Malaysia in order to use Nvidia’s chips.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) -Malaysia's trade ministry said on Monday that the export, transshipment and transit of high-performance artificial intelligence chips of U.S. origin will be subject to a trade permit, effective immediately.