Singapore charges three with fraud that media link to Nvidia chips.

The sudden boom of Deepseek, the latest phenomenon in the artificial intelligence sector and a Chinese application famous for its surprising effectiveness and free status, has set off alarm bells for several competitors in the tech industry. Two months after its market launch, in fact, several investigations into it have been opened.

Authorities in Singapore recently charged three men with fraud, in a case that some national media outlets appear to have linked to the smuggling of advanced chips from U.S. multinational Nvidia, from the city-state to China's Deepseek company.

More specifically, the investigation aims to find out whether the company used U.S. materials that are not allowed to be shipped to China, such as the chips in question. The case is part of a larger investigation involving 22 individuals and companies.