[News] Singapore States Less Than 1% of NVIDIA’s Revenue Tied to Physical Shipments to The Country

Amid concerns that whether Singapore has become a major intermediary of transferring NVIDIA chips to China, Tan See Leng, Second Minister for Trade and Industry, stated that less than 1% of NVIDIA’s total revenue comes from products physically delivered to the country, according to Bloomberg and local media The Straits Times.

Tan noted that the rest of NVIDIA’s Singapore-billed revenue involved no physical shipments into the country, as per the reports.

Another Tom’s Hardware report, citing Tan, suggests that it would be common for global companies to centralize billing in their hubs, but this doesn’t mean the products are shipped there.

Singapore Makes Up Over 20% of NVIDIA’s Total Sales

However, Tim’s Hardware also points out that Singapore has strong ties to China, particularly in business, with many Chinese tech firms, like TikTok, setting up offices there.

NVIDIA’s latest 10-Q filing shows that in Q3 of FY25, Singapore was the company’s second-largest market by revenue, accounting for around 22%, following the U.S. at 42%.

In the note of the filing, NVIDIA states that revenue by geographic area is based upon the billing location of the customer. For example, most shipments associated with Singapore revenue were to locations other than Singapore and shipments to Singapore were insignificant.

At the end of January 2025, Chinese AI startup DeepSeek launched its latest large language model (LLM), DeepSeek-R1, featuring full open-source accessibility and affordability.

Following that, U.S. lawmakers singled out Singapore in a letter to National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, urging strict licensing requirements for countries unwilling to curb shipments to China, as noted in a previous report from The Straits Times.

To address the concerns, Tan said Singapore is a trusted global business hub, known for its rule of law, transparency, and zero tolerance for corruption, according to The Straits Times.

In Singapore, the transfer of strategic goods is regulated under the Strategic Goods (Control) Act, which aligns with major export control regimes, including UN sanctions, the report adds.

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(Photo credit: NVIDIA)