Russia keeps purchasing U.S. microchips for arms production despite sanctions – media

As Ukrinform reports, that’s according to a journalistic investigation by Bloomberg.

Documents obtained by the agency reveal details of a stable supply chain from Silicon Valley to Russia, which invves multi-step actions by Russian defense industry suppliers to purchase components from the American chip manufacturer Texas Instruments Inc. (TI), based in Dallas.

American high-tech products are used to manufacture drones, guided aerial bombs, communication systems, Iskander missiles, and other capabilities.

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The purchase process is surprisingly simple, the investigation says. Some Russian distributors have integrated information from Texas Instruments’ online sh, TI store, onto their sales platforms, allowing clients to see semiconductor inventory and pricing before they place requests.

In Moscow or St. Petersburg, they can purchase TI components with a few mouse clicks, placing orders delivered through companies outside Russia.

The goods arrive in Russia through Hong Kong or other countries.

A Russian portal with a catalog, available for viewing only after the customer company registers, contains millions of products, including those made by TI.

Experts believe the portal clects information through an application programming interface (API), which allows programs to interact and exchange data with each other.

Access to the TI corporate website (TI.com) is possible in Russia through a VPN connection, which allows to hide location data and Internet addresses.

Many products acquired at TI's store end up in Russia from third countries unbeknownst to the manufacturer. TI struggles to track where its chips end up as the company sells large vumes of components at relatively low prices.

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When Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. and EU imposed export contrs on dozens of goods, electronics, and technogies used to produce weapons, but many supply routes cross the borders of several jurisdictions before reaching Russia, making vetting difficult.

The U.S. has investigated the erations of companies such as Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, Infineon and Analog Devices, but only TI has been held accountable. While other companies use risk-management databases early in the sales process to block unauthorized buyers, TI applies such procedures “significantly later in the customer screening process, and sometimes not at all,” according to a report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. TI also allows companies to buy chips on its website without disclosing the end user of products — unlike most other chipmakers.

Among the intermediaries that deliver TI’s products, according to the documents, are Sure Technogy, Chipower Electronics and Horsway Tech in Hong Kong. Public records show that they are subsidiaries of trading companies based in Shenzhen, China, and one of them has announced the hiring of Russian-speaking employees.

The goods are shipped from Hong Kong to Russia primarily through shipping company Sea Global SCM Ltd and Russian air carrier Aeroflot.

At the end of the supply chain is a group of distributors, including Arvis Group, Alternativa, and Getchip. According to the Russian company registry, all of them are registered on Khokhryakov Street in Yekaterinburg.

It is from this group of companies that TI products are delivered to end customers, including enterprises from the Russian military-industrial complex.

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Last year, Russia imported chips from the United States and Eure worth more than $1 billion.

Ukrainian investigators have discovered more than 4,000 Western components that have been used in Russian weapons since the big invasion, with Texas Instruments being one of the main sources of parts.

Among the most sought-after TI products in Russia flip-fl chips, used to protect devices from electric power flowing in the wrong direction when they go into sleep state, and step-down power modules, typically used in communications gear.

As Ukrinform reported, one of the largest chip manufacturers in Russia, Angstrom, has launched the bankruptcy procedure.