India Was a Hole... "Russia Imports 'NVIDIA AI Chips'"

Bloomberg "Indian Company Exports Advanced Servers Equipped with AI Chips to Russia"

A pharmaceutical company in Mumbai, India, has reportedly exported cutting-edge servers equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) chips from the U.S. semiconductor company Nvidia to Russia, Bloomberg reported on the 28th.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are walking and talking on July 8 (local time) in Novo-Ogaryovo, on the outskirts of Moscow.
[Photo by EPA Yonhap News]

According to an analysis of data from trade data firms ImportGenius and NBD by Bloomberg, the Indian pharmaceutical company Shreya Life Sciences exported 1,111 advanced servers from global IT company Dell Technologies to Russia between April and August.

These servers, known as PowerEdge XE9680, are listed on Dell's website as containing high-performance processors optimized for AI, made by Nvidia or AMD.

Bloomberg reported that detailed information on 998 of the shipped servers specifies that these servers are equipped with Nvidia's AI chip, the H100.

These servers and the chips inside them are included on the export restriction lists designated by the United States and the European Union (EU), targeting Russia's military-industrial complex.

The servers, valued at approximately $300 million (about 415.5 billion KRW), were imported by Russian trading companies Main Chain and I.S LLC.

Bloomberg particularly noted that this is only part of the advanced technology products that Shreya has legally exported to Russia since September 2022.

The Russian company Main Chain also imported technology products from another Indian company, Hayers Infotech Private Limited, and the total value of advanced products exported to Russia by these two Indian companies since February 2022 is estimated at $434 million (about 600 billion KRW).

Bloomberg pointed out that this reveals gaps in Western governments' sanction efforts aimed at blocking Russia's access to dual-use technologies that could have military applications.

The Indian government does not consider doing business with Russia illegal because India has not joined the sanctions imposed by the U.S. and the EU against Russia.

India maintains close relations with the West through the Quad (a security dialogue among the U.S., Japan, Australia, and India) while also continuing a strategic partnership with Russia. India has long relied on Russian military equipment.

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the West has imposed comprehensive sanctions on Russia, but India has not participated. Instead, India has emerged as a new key economic partner for Russia by purchasing Russian oil at discounted prices due to sanctions blocking other markets and continuing to import weapons.

Western countries have raised concerns with India about Russia circumventing import restrictions on sensitive technology items through India. The EU has already imposed sanctions on several India-based companies, but the Indian side is reported to have shown little response.