Four major U.S. technology companies are facing lawsuits alleging their semiconductor products ended up in Russian and Iranian weapons systems used against Ukrainian civilians, despite American export controls designed to prevent such diversions.
American and Ukrainian law firms filed five separate lawsuits against Intel Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Texas Instruments Inc, and Mouser Electronics, claiming inadequate supply chain oversight allowed their chips to reach Russian military forces through third-party intermediaries.
The complaints, filed in Texas courts, allege the companies’ products were found in Russian Kh-101 and Iskander-M missiles as well as Iranian-made Shahed 136 drones deployed by Moscow’s forces in Ukraine.
“We know what kinds of drones with which kinds of chips, guidance technologies are in them,” said Mikal Watts, founder of Texas-based Watts Law Firm, in a video statement.
The lawsuits do not accuse the companies of directly supplying Russian forces. Instead, they argue the firms failed to implement adequate compliance measures to prevent chips from being diverted through Iranian and Chinese middlemen to sanctioned Russian military end-users.
SUPPLY CHAIN FAILURES ALLEGED
Court documents cite a 2023 report from the Kyiv School of Economics and the International Working Group on Russian Sanctions identifying 174 foreign components in Russian military drones. Of those, 36 were attributed to Texas Instruments and AMD’s Xilinx chips.
The lawsuits claim the companies “continued doing business with distributors who had been publicly linked to sanctioned actors” despite warnings from federal agencies, journalists and international watchdogs about chip diversion to Russian military use.
Under Texas law, companies must exercise reasonable care to prevent foreseeable harm. The complaints argue the firms violated both state negligence standards and U.S. export control regulations.
Watts said the goal is to halt the flow of American technology to Russian weapons programs while securing compensation for Ukrainian drone strike victims and their families.
COMPANIES DEFEND COMPLIANCE
Intel said in a statement it “does not conduct business in Russia and promptly suspended all shipments to customers in both Russia and Belarus following the outbreak of war.”
The Santa Clara, California-based company said it operates “in strict accordance with export laws, sanctions and regulations in the U.S. and every market in which we operate, and we hold our suppliers, customers, and distributors accountable to these same standards.”
Kevin Hess, senior vice president of marketing at Mouser Electronics, said the company would “respond to this matter in court, versus the media.”
AMD and Texas Instruments did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The cases represent the first major legal action targeting U.S. semiconductor companies over allegations their products reached Russian military forces through supply chain gaps, potentially testing the boundaries of corporate liability for downstream use of exported technology.
