The $2.5 billion chip smuggling operation that Silicon Valley doesn't want to talk about

My second cover story for The Spectator, on how the West is arming China's war machine

Hey everyone,

My second cover story for The Spectator just dropped. This one is about how the US and UK have been feeding China’s war machine for years, most of it without breaking the law.

The piece starts with a case that’s caused me to reflect on my time as a foreign correspondent in China. The co-founder of SuperMicro, one of Silicon Valley’s most important hardware companies, allegedly helped run a $2.5 billion smuggling operation to get restricted AI servers to China. Fake serial numbers, dummy boxes, along with surveillance cameras that recorded the alleged scheme. And SuperMicro had already pleaded guilty to a similar charge related to Iran back in 2006.

But the smuggling is only part of the story. The other problem are the doors that open legally. Semiconductor companies design workarounds to keep selling advanced chips to China. Last year, Microsoft was even caught using China-based engineers on Pentagon cloud systems. Our leaders in London or Washington haven’t figured out where to draw the line.

You can read the full piece here:

Thanks as always for reading. More soon.

Geoff