SINGAPORE, June 27 (Reuters) - Singapore's case against

three men linked by local media to the illegal transfer of

Nvidia's ( NVDA ) AI chips from Singapore to Chinese artificial

intelligence firm DeepSeek has been adjourned until Aug 22, the

court ruled on Friday.

At a hearing on Friday, the prosecution said the police

would need more time to review new documents and seek responses

from overseas parties in the investigations into the three men,

Singaporeans Aaron Woon Guo Jie, 41, and Alan Wei Zhaolun, 49,

as well as the Chinese national Li Ming, 51.

They were earlier charged with committing fraud by making

false representations to unnamed server suppliers about the end

users of goods purchased in 2023 and 2024.

The United States banned the export of high-end chips from

Nvidia ( NVDA ) to China in 2022 amid concerns that they could be used

for military purposes. A senior U.S. official said that AI firm

DeepSeek is aiding China's military and intelligence operations,

Reuters reported on Monday.

Singapore Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said in March

that the authorities had ascertained that servers involved in

the fraud case may contain Nvidia ( NVDA ) chips, and that they had

investigated the case independently after an anonymous tip-off.

The servers were supplied by Dell Technologies ( DELL ) and

Super Micro Computer ( SMCI ) to Singapore-based companies

before they were sent on to Malaysia, although it was not clear

if Malaysia was the final destination for the servers, he said.

The Singapore case is part of a broader police investigation

into 22 individuals and companies suspected of false

representation, amid concerns that nations like Singapore have

been involved in organised AI chip smuggling to China.

In 2024, Singapore was Nvidia's ( NVDA ) second-biggest market after

the United States, accounting for 18% of its total revenue in

its latest fiscal year, a February filing by the chipmaker

shows.

Actual shipments to the Asian trading hub, however,

contributed less than 2% of total revenue, as customers use it

as a centre for invoicing sales to other countries.