The Malaysian government appears to be reconsidering its previous announcement that its Strategic Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure project would run on DeepSeek and Huawei Ascend chips, which the U.S. Commerce Department recently warned could result in “substantial criminal and administrative penalties.”
The Malaysian Ministry of Investment, Trade, and Industry (MITI) on May 21 published a statement addressing media reports that questioned whether the project would violate U.S. export control laws.
“The said initiative was not developed, endorsed, or coordinated by the Government of Malaysia, nor does it form part of any Government-to-Government agreement or nationally mandated technology programme,” MITI stated.
The U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security had on May 13 issued a reminder that Huawei Ascend chips were likely developed in violation of U.S. export controls, and that the Chinese makers used restricted U.S. technology to create the AI chips….