FT film investigates the black market for AI chips and how smuggling networks bypass export controls

Silicon shadows: inside the black market for AI chips | FT Film

This FT documentary traces how high-end Nvidia GPUs are smuggled into China via Singapore, Malaysia, and other transit hubs. Middlemen use shell companies, fake end-user certificates, and cross-border ant-like shipments to dodge US export controls. The film captures warehouse stockpiling and repackaging on camera, and interviews both smugglers and investigators. One key detail: serial numbers are stripped and cards repackaged to obscure the origin. The documentary does not give a total black-market volume figure, but shows the supply chain is highly organized.

Why it matters: FT documentary-grade investigation with on-the-ground footage and first-hand interviews, not policy rehash. Hits all three HKR criteria, but it's investigative journalism rather than a product/tech update, so direct actionability for practitioners is limited — scored at the lo...