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Supermicro Stock Plummets on China Smuggling Charges
20 Mar
Summary
- Two Supermicro employees charged with smuggling servers to China.
- Scheme allegedly involved $2.5 billion in US-made servers.
- Supermicro stock dropped nearly 28% following the indictment.
Supermicro's stock plummeted as much as 28% on Friday, March 20, 2026, following the unsealing of an indictment by US authorities. The indictment charges two Supermicro employees and a contractor with smuggling servers containing Nvidia chips to China, violating US export controls.
The co-founder and senior vice president of business development, Yih-Shyan "Wally" Liaw, along with sales manager Ruei-Tsang "Steven" Chang and contractor Ting-Wei "Willy" Sun, are accused of a scheme to send $2.5 billion worth of US-made servers to China between 2024 and 2025.
Prosecutors allege the trio sold AI technology to a pass-through company in Southeast Asia, knowing it would be rerouted to China. They purportedly forged documents and created replica servers for inspections while unlawfully forwarding the actual servers. Supermicro has placed the employees on administrative leave and terminated its relationship with the contractor.
This incident follows previous scrutiny of Supermicro, including accusations of export control violations by Hindenburg Research in the summer of 2024. The company had also delayed filings and faced potential Nasdaq delisting before an independent review found no substantial concerns in December 2024.
