A new analysis of public trade data suggests that Brussels and Washington’s efforts to entirely block Moscow from accessing cutting-edge Western technology may have encountered a critical stumbling block. An apparent loophole has emerged in India: A biotech firm, possibly acting as a front company, has purchased servers with advanced US chips, which are then rerouted and shipped to Russia. 

Investigative reporters with Bloomberg shed light on Shreya Life Sciences, a so-called biotech firm located in Mumbai. They cite trade data compiled by trade-tracking firms ImportGenius and NBD that show Shreya exported 1,111 units of PowerEdge XE9680 Rack Servers produced by Dell Technologies to Russia.

On Dell’s website, the product description for the PowerEdge XE9680 reads, “Take on demanding artificial intelligence, machine learning and deep learning. Rapidly develop, train and deploy large machine learning models with this high-performance application server made for artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and deep learning. Dell’s PowerEdge XE9680 delivers the industry’s best AI performance.” 

Further down in the product description, Dell notes the servers are equipped with either Nvidia or AMD chips. 

Bloomberg noted that the servers and chips are on a blacklist by the US and the European Union, preventing the flow of technology to Moscow. The EU, in cooperation with the US, UK, and Japan, has said these sanctions on Russia are “to target sensitive sectors in Russia’s military-industrial complex and to limit its access to crucial advanced technology.” 

Source: Bloomberg

According to Bloomberg journalists, trade data shows that two Russian trading companies, Main Chain Ltd. and IS LLC, imported AI servers with US chips totaling $300 million to Russia.

Source: Bloomberg

Taking this investigative report even further, public trade data compiled by counterparty and supply chain risk intelligence firm Sayari shows Russian buyers Main Chain, IS, and Mine Hine imported these PowerEdge XE9680s from Shreya in April and May. 

Source: Sayari

Data compiled by Sayari is then produced in a web visual form to show how the Indian pharma company pumped hundreds of these Western AI servers into Russia earlier this year. 

Additional trade data by the supply chain risk firm shows that 81% of Shreya’s total exports this year have been directed to Russia.

Source: Sayari

Most of the export shipments to Russia were computers and processing machines… Not really biotech-ish, eh? 

Source: Sayari

Maybe the journos at Bloomberg have stumbled upon a front company that allows Russia to evade Western sanctions on procuring AI tech.