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No public record cited here establishes that smugglers hid NVIDIA chips inside live lobsters. Hong Kong Customs did report finding live lobsters and high-value computer display cards together in a car in 2023. The agency did not identify the cards as NVIDIA products or say they were concealed among the lobsters. The more vivid wording came two years later in a policy submission by Anthropic.
What Hong Kong Customs actually reported
Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department said officers stopped a private car declared empty at the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Hong Kong Port on 28 April 2023. In the boot, they found about 280 kilograms of unmanifested live lobsters and 70 unmanifested high-value computer display cards. Customs estimated the total market value of the seized goods at about HK$600,000. The department’s notice said two men, aged 37 and 51, were arrested on suspicion of connection with the case and that the investigation was ongoing.
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Those figures describe one seizure; they are not a measure of how common chip smuggling is. Crucially, Customs called the electronics “computer display cards.” It did not name a manufacturer, model, or intended use, and its account says the goods were found in the car boot—not that cards were inside lobsters or packed among them.
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Where the “GPUs alongside live lobsters” claim came from
On 29 April 2025, Anthropic used the phrase “packing GPUs alongside live lobsters” in a policy submission concerning the proposed U.S. AI Diffusion Rule. That submission is a later policy argument by a company advocating a position on export controls; it is not the wording of the 2023 Customs notice. The notice establishes that lobsters and display cards were in the same vehicle, but does not establish how they were arranged relative to one another.
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On 1 May 2025, TechCrunch reported a response from an unnamed NVIDIA spokesperson, who disputed the broader examples: “American firms should focus on innovation and rise to the challenge, rather than tell tall tales that large, heavy, and sensitive electronics are somehow smuggled in ‘baby bumps’ or ‘alongside live lobsters.’” TechCrunch’s report attributes that statement to NVIDIA; it does not identify the spokesperson by name.
What is—and is not—established
| Question | What the available record says |
|---|---|
| Were live lobsters and computer cards seized together? | Yes. Hong Kong Customs reported about 280 kilograms of live lobsters and 70 high-value computer display cards in the boot of one car on 28 April 2023. |
| Were the cards NVIDIA products or AI accelerators? | Not established. The Customs notice does not identify their manufacturer, model, or use. |
| Were chips hidden inside lobsters or packed among them? | Not established by the Customs account. It reports the goods in the same vehicle, not their precise placement relative to one another. |
| Did Anthropic use the lobster comparison? | Yes. Its April 2025 submission said smugglers had packed GPUs “alongside live lobsters.” |
| Did NVIDIA accept that description? | No. An unnamed spokesperson disputed the examples in comments reported by TechCrunch in May 2025. |
Other lobster seizures do not fill in the missing details
Hong Kong Customs also reported separate suspected lobster-smuggling cases: about 302 kilograms of lobsters and hairy crabs seized in two vehicle cases in August 2023, and about 600 kilograms of suspected smuggled lobsters in a goods vehicle in January 2024. The August 2023 release and the January 2024 release document seafood cases; neither establishes NVIDIA-chip concealment.
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Why the wording matters
“NVIDIA chips hidden with live lobsters” combines details that come from different accounts and are not all confirmed by the official seizure notice. The primary record confirms unmanifested seafood and generic display cards in one car. Anthropic later characterized the incident as GPUs packed alongside lobsters, while NVIDIA disputed that characterization. The public accounts cited here do not resolve the cards’ identity, their precise placement, or the eventual outcome of the investigation.
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