Dozens of Ukrainian civilians filed a series of lawsuits in Texas this week, accusing some of the biggest US chip firms of negligently failing to track chips that evaded export curbs. Those chips were ultimately used to power Russian and Iranian weapon systems, causing wrongful deaths last year.
Their complaints alleged that for years, Texas Instruments (TI), AMD, and Intel have ignored public reporting, government warnings, and shareholder pressure to do more to track final destinations of chips and shut down shady distribution channels diverting chips to sanctioned actors in Russia and Iran.
Putting profits over human lives, tech firms continued using “high-risk” channels, Ukrainian civilians’ legal team alleged in a press statement, without ever strengthening controls.
All that intermediaries who placed bulk online orders had to do to satisfy chip firms was check a box confirming that the shipment wouldn’t be sent to sanctioned countries, lead attorney Mikal Watts told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday, according to the Kyiv Independent.
“There are export lists,” Watts said. “We know exactly what requires a license and what doesn’t. And companies know who they’re selling to. But instead, they rely on a checkbox that says, ‘I’m not shipping to Putin.’ That’s it. No enforcement. No accountability.”
As chip firms allegedly looked the other way, innocent civilians faced five attacks, detailed in the lawsuits, that used weapons containing their chips. That includes one of the deadliest attacks in Kyiv, where Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital was targeted in July 2024. Some civilians suing were survivors seriously injured in attacks, while others lost loved ones and experienced emotional trauma.
Russia would not be able to hit their targets without chips supplied by US firms, the lawsuits alleged. Considered the brain of weapon systems, including drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles, the chips help enable Russia’s war against Ukrainian civilians, they alleged.
“These chips are like the steering wheels of cars,” Watts said at the press conference. “Without them, missiles and drones make no sense.” He suggested that firms that claim they cannot trace their own products made “a mockery of US sanctions law.”
Ars could not reach AMD or TI for comment. But TI’s assistant general counsel, Shannon Thompson, testified to Congress last year that the company “strongly opposes the use of our chips in Russian military equipment” and that any such shipments “are illicit and unauthorized,” Bloomberg reported.
An Intel spokesperson provided a lengthy statement to Ars, admitting that the firm cannot always control or trace chips or other products bypassing sanctions:
“Intel does not do business in Russia and promptly suspended all shipments to customers in both Russia and Belarus following the outbreak of war. We operate in strict accordance with export laws, sanctions and regulations in the U.S. and every jurisdiction in which we operate. Most Intel products are general-purpose computing products that can be incorporated into countless systems and applications that are sold by distributors, system manufacturers, and others, and not directly by Intel. While we do not always know nor can we control what products or applications customers and end-users may create, we hold our suppliers, customers and distributors accountable to these same standards. We take these issues very seriously and will continue to enforce our policies in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations.”
Ukrainians want firms to cover funeral costs, medical bills
The evidence of alleged negligence is “extensive,” Watts’ firm’s statement said.
For example, TI rejected its own board’s recommendations to strengthen compliance with export curbs, despite shareholder fears of financial repercussions of failing to do so. TI allegedly told shareholders that “complete traceability and prevention of product misuse was ‘unachievable,’” the press statement said. But that didn’t satisfy shareholders who demanded a third-party audit to find out what other steps TI could be taking to cut off sketchy distribution channels and improve compliance with sanctions laws.
