China’s secret weapon for smuggling AI chips might be hairdryers

The founder of an $18bn (£13.5bn) technology company has been arrested by the FBI and charged with smuggling billions of dollars of AI microchips to China, after investigators caught conspirators using a hairdryer to remove tracking labels. The US Department of Justice said it had charged 71-year-old Yih-Shyan Liaw, one of the co-founders of semiconductor company Supermicro, as well as two other men, with violating export control laws.