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In fact, exports of computer systems from Taiwan to Malaysia skyrocketed in December 2023, shortly after the U.S. government restricted sales of advanced CPUs and GPUs to China, according to data from Taiwan’s ITA.
However, Malaysian companies are not only importing AI servers. They also accelerated purchases of components from Taiwan, which may include AI accelerators, such as Nvidia’s H100. In March, exports of computer parts from Taiwan to Malaysia increased to $60.83 million, up from $27.04 million in March 2023 and $15 million in the same month last year.
There are things to note, though. Taiwan’s ITA tracks exports based on their HS codes. Computer systems, which span from laptops and tablets all the way to AI, HPC, and storage servers, are classified under the heading 8471 with different suffixes. Taiwan’s ITA only allows us to track items under headings and without suffixes, so exports of computer systems from Taiwan include both inexpensive notebooks and ultra-expensive Nvidia DGX and HGX AI servers (which Nvidia classifies as 8471.50). AI accelerators and graphics cards are classified as parts of computer systems under the heading 8473 codes, with Nvidia classifying them as 8473.30.
Taiwan's exports of likely AI chips to Malaysia are surging (h/t @kakashiii111). HS84718 shows patterns consistent with AI chips.
With US export controls coming May 15th, this could be a rush before the deadline—or just processing in Malaysia before shipping elsewhere. 1/ pic.twitter.com/fpLRQSOTf7
— Lennart Heim (@ohlennart) April 15, 2025
Although we cannot distinguish between AI servers and cheap laptops based solely on HS codes, it is evident that exports of computer systems from Taiwan to Malaysia began to accelerate right after the U.S. imposed restrictions on shipments of advanced AI GPUs to China. The U.S. government recently asked the Malaysian government to tighten oversight of the country’s high-tech exports to China, which suggests that there are suspicions that Nvidia’s high-end GPUs are being funneled to China.
According to media reports, Chinese clients are the primary customers of Malaysian cloud data centers. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect these companies to ship AI servers from Taiwan to Malaysia, now that they cannot obtain them for China. Therefore, at least some of the high-end machines shipped to Malaysia end up in local data centers.
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