Two Chinese nationals in California were arrested and charged with illegally shipping tens of millions of dollars’ worth of AI chips to China, including Nvidia H100s, the US Justice Department said on Tuesday.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said on Tuesday that two Chinese nationals have been arrested for their alleged involvement in illegally shipping "tens of millions of dollars" worth of high-performance AI chips to China.

The commerce department has started issuing licenses to Nvidia to export its H20 chips to China, a U.S. official told Reuters on Friday, removing a significant hurdle to the AI bellwether’s access to a key market.