China Customs has once again stopped an individual who was trying to smuggle 239 Intel 13th Gen CPUs wrapped around his waist & worth $46K.
Man attempts to smuggle $46K worth of Intel 13th Gen CPUs across China's borders
Last week, we discussed the General Administration of Custom's (GAC) WeChat account providing video and information about a gentleman attempting to cross borders with 84 solid-state drives packed neatly within the front bumper of an electric scooter. One week later, news from the GAC on WeChat has provided yet another case of smuggled goods, but the cost of the items is of great note. A gentleman attempted to cross the border with 239 Intel 13th Gen CPUs wrapped around his body, equalling over $46K.
Hearing more of these cases arise is unsurprising, especially with China's import/export channels cut by US government mandates. Most governing and scientific outlets in Chinese waters are forced to utilize consumer-based PC components to continue research and development for artificial intelligence, medical, and military uses, to name a few.
Sources in China have resorted to purchasing these goods off sites like JD.com, AliExpress, and more at consumer prices. NVIDIA recently created a variant of the Hopper H100 machine learning (ML) GPU for China that would be legal by US regulatory standards. The company launched the H800, which produces half the machine learning power of the Hopper H100 GPU.
In this recent "Customs Release" issued by the GAC, on March 16, a man described as a "mainland tourist" was detained at the "no declaration channel: of Gongbei Port Passenger Inspection Hall. The gentleman wore loose black clothes and appeared to officers as abnormally bloated.
Once brought in for investigation, the officials discovered the man with Intel's Raptor Lake i5-13400F CPUs taped to his abdomen, waist, and thighs. After removing the CPUs from the man's body, officials tallied the amount, reaching 239 Intel processors that were attempted to be smuggled across borders. Judging by Intel's "recommended customer price," which at the time of writing is $196 per chip, the total acquired is $46,844.
The Intel Core i5-13400F processor is the company's desktop PC CPU offering ten cores across sixteen threads with a max turbo frequency of 4.6 GHz. It offers 20 MB of Intel Smart Cache and has a maximum TDP of 148W. The processor is considered mid-level in the Raptor Lake family but is a prominent seller in the budget DIY segment. The performance of this chip makes it a very good option for entry-level and budget builders which could be one reason why so many of these chips were being smuggled by the said individual.
News Source: Kuai Technology
