According to recent news reported by Bloomberg, Russia bought$1.7 billion worth of chips in 2023 from companies such as Intel, AMD, and others to fuel its war efforts in Ukraine.

Despite US and European sanctions and tough restrictions designed to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin's military modernization program, Russia imported advanced US and European chips last year, including$1.2 billion worth made by 20 chipmakers.

The list of companies is led by Intel, AMD, and Analog Devices, including specific brands they own, such as Intel's Altera and AMD's Xilinx.
Smaller producers, including some from Europe and the US, account for the remaining$500 million in chips. A smaller group of Chinese firms is also among the top 20. Russia even imported around$17 million of products from Taiwan's Realtek Semiconductor Corp. There is no evidence that the Taiwanese firm exported its chips directly to Russia or was even aware that their chips had been sent there.

Why does it matter?

The overwhelming amount of banned technology reaches Russia through re-exports from foreign nations such as China, Turkiye, and the United Arab Emirates. The US and EU have been attempting to dry such routes, focusing notably on a list of high-priority so-called 'dual-use' and sophisticated items detected in Russian weaponry in Ukraine or that are essential to their manufacturing.