Home / Crime and Justice / US Charges Trio in Plot to Send Nvidia AI Chips to China
US Charges Trio in Plot to Send Nvidia AI Chips to China
20 Mar
Summary
- Three men linked to Super Micro charged with violating export laws.
- The scheme involved diverting advanced AI chips to China.
- Defendants allegedly faked server inspections to hide illegal shipments.
Three individuals connected to Silicon Valley's Super Micro have been indicted for allegedly orchestrating a scheme to illegally export advanced artificial intelligence chips to China. Yih-Shyan Liaw, a Super Micro co-founder, Ruei-Tsang Chang, a sales manager, and Ting-Wei Sun, a contractor, are accused of violating U.S. export laws. This operation is described as a systematic effort to divert substantial quantities of U.S.-developed AI technology.
The indictment alleges that starting in 2024, orders were placed with Super Micro for servers containing Nvidia's AI chips, which are critical for developing and operating artificial intelligence systems. These advanced chips have been subject to U.S. export restrictions aimed at preventing their use by China for military and surveillance purposes.
Prosecutors claim the defendants procured approximately $2.5 billion worth of servers from Super Micro through an intermediary company. To conceal the illegal transfers, thousands of replica servers were allegedly staged for inspections, while the actual servers were shipped to China. Between April and May of the previous year, at least $510 million worth of Super Micro's servers were reportedly transferred to China via this intermediary.
