The U.S. Justice Department has charged two Chinese nationals living in California, Chuan Geng of Pasadena and Shiwei Yang of El Monte, with violating the Export Control Reform Act by illegally exporting advanced artificial-intelligence chips to China. Prosecutors allege the pair, both 28, used their company ALX Solutions Inc. to ship Nvidia H100 accelerators and other high-performance GPUs from October 2022 through July 2025 without the licenses required by the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security. Court filings say ALX Solutions orchestrated more than 20 shipments, routing the hardware through freight forwarders in Singapore and Malaysia to disguise the final destination. Investigators traced purchases of more than 200 H100 chips from server maker Super Micro Computer, including a 2023 invoice valued at $28.45 million that listed a fictitious Singapore customer. Financial records show a $1 million transfer from a China-based buyer in January 2024 and additional payments from entities in Hong Kong and mainland China. Geng, a lawful permanent resident, surrendered to authorities and was released on a $250,000 bond; Yang, who overstayed her visa, remains in custody pending an Aug. 12 detention hearing. Each faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. The FBI and Commerce Department are continuing the investigation, which underscores Washington’s efforts to enforce 2022 export controls intended to curb Beijing’s access to cutting-edge AI semiconductors.