WASHINGTON, United States (AFP)—Two Chinese nationals and two Americans have been arrested for allegedly illegally exporting cutting-edge Nvidia chips with AI applications to China, the Justice Department said Thursday.

Chinese nationals Cham Li, 38, and Jing Chen, 45, along with Americans Hon Ning Ho, 34, and Brian Raymond, 46, are charged with conspiring to violate the Export Control Reform Act (ECRA) and money laundering.

Justice officials said the four conspired to illegally export advanced Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) to China through Malaysia and Thailand.

The defendants engaged in a “deliberate and deceptive effort to transship controlled Nvidia GPUs to China by falsifying paperwork, creating fake contracts, and misleading US authorities,” Assistant Attorney General John Eisenberg said in a statement.

They received nearly $4 million from China to help finance the export scheme, the department said.

It said some 400 Nvidia A100 GPUs were exported to China between October 2024 and January 2025 in two shipments. Two other shipments were “disrupted by law enforcement and therefore not completed.”

The Justice Department said China is seeking cutting-edge US technology to further its goal of becoming the world leader in AI by 2030.

Violations of ECRA and money laundering are each punishable by up to 20 years in prison.