Nvidia’s headquarters on Feb. 26, 2025, in Santa Clara, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
Malaysia said it will take “necessary action” against Malaysian companies if they are found to be involved in a fraud case linked to the alleged movement of Nvidia chips from Singapore to China.
That comes after Singapore Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam reportedly said on Monday that the servers in the fraud case may have contained Nvidia’s artificial intelligence chips which were then sent to Malaysia.
On Feb. 27, Singapore charged three men with fraud, with local broadcaster CNA saying it understood the cases are linked to the alleged movement of Nvidia chips.
“The question is whether Malaysia was a final destination or from Malaysia, it went to somewhere else, which we do not know for certain at this point,” Shanmugam told reporters.
Speaking to CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Tuesday, Tengku Zafrul Aziz, Malaysia’s minister for investment, trade and industry said the country has no information that data center companies operating in Malaysia are “not using the chips that they are supposed to be using.”
He said such servers are imported by data center companies such as Microsoft, AWS and Google.
Singapore’s Shanmugam had said Nvidia’s chips were embedded in servers supplied by Dell and Supermicro to Singapore-based companies, before they went to Malaysia. He added that “there may have been false representation on the final destination of the servers.”
When asked if Malaysia knew where the servers were now, Zafrul replied, “we don’t know,” adding that Malaysian authorities are discussing with the data center companies and checking if they have gone to the right parties.
“Right now, there’s no such cases in Malaysia to date, and we are investigating if they are. We’ll definitely discuss this with Singapore and well, the companies would then have to be held accountable by the relevant authorities,” he added.
CNA also reported two Singaporeans were charged with criminal conspiracy to commit fraud on a supplier of servers.
Citing charge sheets, CNA said they allegedly made false representations in 2024 that the items would not be transferred to a person other than the “authorized ultimate consignee of end users.”
The charges also come after Reuters reported in late January that the U.S. Commerce Department is looking into whether Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has been using U.S. chips that are not allowed to be shipped to China.
Citing a person familiar with the matter, Reuters said “organized AI chip smuggling to China has been tracked out of countries including Malaysia, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.”
Zafrul told CNBC that Malaysia will be checking the chips’ destination, but added, “what I can say today [is] the chips are not meant to be in Malaysia in the first place. So the question is, why is it going out of Singapore?”
Employees move semiconductor testers on the assembly line of the Advantest Corp. plant in Ora, Japan on Aug. 10, 2012.
Tomohiro Ohsumi | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Asian tech and chip-related stocks fell Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump made it clear that tariffs on Mexico and Canada would go into effect as planned.
Trump also said he would impose an additional 10% tariff on imports from China, having already levied 10% duties that came into effect in February.
Asian tech stocks were also pressured by the near 9% fall in artificial intelligence darling Nvidia‘s shares overnight.
Japanese semiconductor equipment maker Advantest plunged as much as 9%, to its lowest level since last October, while Chipmaker Renesas Electronics lost 6.35%.
Tech investor SoftBank Group dropped 6.25%. The company’s CEO Masayoshi Son plans to borrow $16 billion to invest in artificial intelligence, according to a news report that came out over the weekend.
Over in South Korea, shares in SK Hynix lost as much as 3.26%, while Samsung Electronics bucked the trend to rise nearly 1% following the launch of its Galaxy A series smartphones with AI-powered features.
Chinese AI-linked stocks also fell with Alibaba and Kingsoft Cloud down as much as 2.23% and 8.46% respectively.
Meanwhile, shopping platform Meituan lost 0.62%, electronic vehicle maker BYD plunged 6.60%, Xpeng traded 1.97% lower and Li Auto lost 2.68%.
Chinese tech major Tencent‘s shares were trading 0.91% higher in Hong Kong.
Anne Wojcicki, co-founder and chief executive officer of 23andme Inc., during the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas, US, on Friday, March 10, 2023.
Jordan Vonderhaar | Bloomberg | Getty Images
23andMe‘s special committee of independent directors on Monday rejected CEO Anne Wojcicki’s proposal to take the distressed genetic testing company private.
Wojcicki submitted a proposal to the committee on Sunday, offering to acquire all of the company’s outstanding shares for 41 cents each, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The stock plunged 33% on Monday to close at $1.47, down more than 99% from its peak in 2021.
Wojcicki and New Mountain Capital submitted a prior bid in February to take the company private for $2.53 per share. Days later, New Mountain told Wojcicki it was no longer interested in participating in a potential acquisition and would discontinue discussions, the filing said.
23andMe’s special committee said that Wojcicki’s proposal represented an 84% decrease from the prior offer and determined not to go forward, according to a release on Monday.
“The Special Committee has reviewed Ms. Wojcicki’s acquisition proposal in consultation with its financial and legal advisors, and has unanimously determined to reject the proposal,” the directors said.
23andMe didn’t immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Following a turbulent 2024, 23andMe announced plans in January to explore strategic alternatives, which could include a sale of the company or its assets, a restructuring or a business combination.
Wojcicki previously submitted a proposal to take the company private for 40 cents per share in July, but it was rejected by the special committee, in part because the members said it lacked committed financing and did not provide a premium to the closing price at the time.
The Huawei booth at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, 2025.
Arjun Kharpal | CNBC
BARCELONA — Huawei is dipping its toes back into the international smartphone market, but analysts warn the lingering effects of U.S. sanctions is likely to hamper the Chinese company’s ability to compete with leaders Apple and Samsung.
Over the past few months, Huawei has launched two key devices outside of China. The first in December was the Mate X6, a foldable smartphone, followed by the Mate XT, Huawei’s 3,499 euros ($3,660) trifold phone.
Huawei was looking to stand out from the crowd of similar-looking smartphones at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, the world’s biggest telecoms trade show. The Chinese firm had a large stand showing off its wares, including the Mate XT.
These expensive devices and Huawei’s presence at a global tech show, underscore the tech giant’s targeted approach, attempting to maintain its brand image as an innovative company while selling high-end smartphones.
“Huawei is still very cautious and conservative with what it believes it can achieve outside China with its smartphone business,” Runar Bjørhovde, an analyst at Canalys told CNBC.
“Bringing Mate XT and X6 abroad is no sign that it will make an international comeback with its smartphone business in the next years. Both of these are priced exceptionally and is instead to maintain its desired brand perception of being a cutting-edge innovator with smartphones and still sell devices to its most wealthy super-fans.”
Signage shows the Huawei Mate X6 at Huawei’s booth at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, 2025.
While Huawei has scaled back some of the glitzier aspects of its attendance, its stand remains very large as it shows off other parts of its business, in particular its telecommunications equipment which helped turn it into one of the world’s biggest tech companies.
In the consumer space, Huawei has maintained some presence outside of China with devices such as smartwatches but its smartphone business remains very limited. The firm is using 2025’s MWC to show off the Mate XT, the first of its kind device with a screen that folds twice.
However, its success in China is unlikely to be replicated with the biggest challenge being Huawei’s lack of access to Google’s Android software, analysts said.
“I don’t think they will be able to return to international markets without the full Google services,” Francisco Jeronimo, vice president for data and analytics at International Data Corporation, told CNBC.
A Huawei Technologies Mate XT smartphone arranged in Hong Kong on Sep. 24, 2024.
Lam Yik | Bloomberg | Getty Images
“They haven’t managed to grow market share in the international markets,” he said.
Google’s Android operating system is run by 80% of the world’s smartphones, according to Counterpoint Research. Outside of China, Android device users rely on the Google Play Store, which is Google’s app store, as well as the various apps from the Chrome browser to Gmail.
While Huawei has its own operating system called HarmonyOS, it still does not have the ability to offer Google apps, which the majority of users rely on.
“Expanding the smartphone business outside China will be a huge challenge,” Canalys’ Bjørhovde said.
“Not only because Harmony barely has any active users outside China, limiting its user feedback and app availability, but also because it needs the right device portfolio, operations team, marketing resources, etc. This will take years to rebuild, even with strong success in other device categories.”