The Race to Build a “Find My” for AI Chips

In a bid to limit China’s AI capabilities, the United States imposed restrictions in 2022 on the export of certain advanced chips to China. But throughout the AI boom those chips have kept turning up in China anyway . On 1 October 2026, the U.S. arrested a man on charges of sending over $300 million worth of GPU-equipped servers to China using paperwork intended for shipments to Malaysia and Singapore . As chip smuggling and diversion continues, the United States is learning that the more it tries to limit the motion of its AI chips, the harder they are to precisely locate . To help curb the issue, the country is turning to location verification. Last March, the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee passed a bill requiring location verification for advanced AI chips. Ahead of the U.S.-China