No Priors AI China’s Covert Push for U.S. Chip IP
Nov 24, 2025
Dive into the shadowy world of China's strategic pursuit of U.S. semiconductor technology. Discover how theft, smuggling, and clever loopholes have fueled this covert operation. Hear about the ASML engineer who took vital know-how to start a clone firm and learn about the large-scale smuggling rings routing Nvidia products. The discussion also covers China's drive to independently control advanced chips, highlighting the looming power struggle underpinning global tech supremacy.
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ASML Know-How Walked Out The Door
- Zanshan Yu left ASML with critical know-how and later led a Chinese ASML clone backed by the state.
- Uleft recruited engineers and allegedly brought stolen IP to bootstrap a domestic competitor.
Offshoring Created Exploitable Choke Points
- Offshoring chip manufacturing exposed bottlenecks and created dependencies China exploited.
- China studied supply chains to find single choke points and then operated inside the gaps.
Cartoonish Smuggling, Industrial Scale
- Smugglers used extreme physical concealment and complex supply chains to move GPUs and CPUs.
- Rings routed hardware through Southeast Asia and fake companies to hide destinations and evade controls.