KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Malaysia on Friday said it is working to determine whether any AI chips imported by a unit of cloud computing firm Megaspeed were re-exported, after a US senator alleged the firm may have been used to circumvent US controls on advanced semiconductors.
Singapore-based Megaspeed has come under scrutiny after news reports regarding ties between former executive Alice Huang and then-CEO of US AI chip major Nvidia, Jensen Huang.
The US has alleged Alice Huang spied for China, which China has denied. Megaspeed in a statement on its website said it takes US compliance obligations "extremely seriously".
Malaysia's Investment, Trade and Industry Ministry in a statement said Megaspeed's local unit Speedmatrix imported servers and artificial intelligence chips as a data centre tenant, and that any official visits to its facilities were part of regular monitoring of the sector.
It said it was working with customs to determine whether those chips were re-exported and if so, whether the shipments complied with the law.
Malaysia imposed export controls on the movement of high-performance AI chips of US origin in July 2025. It requires a trade permit for their re-export, trans-shipment or transit, and giving customs false information about such goods is an offence.
The US restricts the export of AI chips to China citing national security.
The ministry said it is working closely with authorities in Singapore and the US and is considering strengthening controls.
"While Malaysia does not enforce unilateral export controls imposed by other countries, all companies operating in Malaysia are expected to take such controls into account in their international business," the ministry said.
Megaspeed did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment on the ministry's statement.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said Malaysia would collaborate on any probes though it has not received requests for assistance from Singapore or the US, state news agency Bernama reported.
"Ours is a trading nation. We welcome investment. We want to make sure the rules are being followed," Bernama reported him as saying.
There is no indication of AI chips linked to Megaspeed being shipped from Malaysia, Anwar said.
(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Editing by David Stanway and Christopher Cushing)