Taiwan Charges Nine in Alleged Nvidia-Super Micro AI Server Export Scheme

Export controls failed at the org chart, not the border.

Keelung District Prosecutors charged nine people Monday over the illegal export of high-end AI servers to China. The group includes one employee of Nvidia’s Taiwan unit and two Super Micro Taiwan employees, the Associated Press reports.

CNA’s Focus Taiwan names the rest of the local stack: Albatron Technology, a Super Micro distributor, and Chief Telecom, a data-center landlord that rents space for servers.

The Nvidia manager is identified only as Chang. Prosecutors called him the “key figure” authorizing the release of B300 GPUs, a part banned for sale to China, and said he showed a “clearly poor attitude following the offense.” They are seeking the five-year maximum for four of the nine defendants, including Chang.

Charges for most of the group: breach of trust and document forgery.

The servers were B300 systems, which prosecutors said have been banned from sale to China. The scheme dressed 130 Super Micro units as if they were installed and in use at a rented Taiwan facility.

Seventy-four reached Chinese customers. AP’s split: 50 through Indonesia, 16 direct, eight via Japan then Hong Kong. Customs blocked the other 56.

The paperwork had a GPU in it.

AP, citing the Keelung office, says any Nvidia sale of high-end AI servers requires a strict review, and purchases of more than eight require company staff to conduct on-site checks of the client.

Focus Taiwan, citing prosecutors, says the defendants allegedly knew Chief Telecom lacked the electricity and bandwidth for 130 servers, concealed that, and had Chang ask Nvidia to approve the order as if verification were complete. Super Micro then agreed to sell 130 servers into that story, the same report says.

The United States has required licenses for advanced semiconductors to China since 2022, Ars notes, and tightened them later. Channel NewsAsia adds a Taiwan-side wrinkle: violating those U.S. controls is not itself a criminal offense there, so prosecutors are using breach of trust and forgery instead.

Chang is the name on the indictment. The 56 that never left Taiwan still needed someone inside to stamp them as installed.

This indictment sits on top of a U.S. case from March. Super Micro co-founder Wally Liaw was arrested on accusations of funneling $2.5 billion in restricted servers to China since 2024. Those remain allegations.

AP: Super Micro says the arrests of two former employees came from its cooperation with Taiwanese authorities, and it will keep enhancing its export-compliance program “to protect American innovation.”

Nvidia spokesperson Patrick Rutherford, also to AP: “We will work with the Taiwan authorities to help them resolve the allegations as quickly as possible.” Ars Technica could not reach Nvidia or Super Micro separately for comment on this indictment.

Prosecutors, as Reuters carried it through Ars, said the employees were “fully aware” that Nvidia and Super Micro have “rigorous internal control procedures” on China exports.

Taiwan authorities on Monday alleged that Nvidia’s manager and Super Micro employees “colluded with one another at various levels for enormous profit, illegally exporting high-end servers, increasing corporate compliance costs, and severely damaging our nation’s international image.”

The alleged workaround was to make a rented room in Taiwan look like the end user, then move the boxes.

Ars, still on Reuters, says one suspect in a related case remains at large, accused of siphoning funds from a distributor company in the same pipeline. Super Micro has said it is not a target of the Taiwan probe and that it previously fired employees tied to the scheme after a third-party internal investigation. Those are company claims.

In May, before Nvidia staff were named in this indictment, CEO Jensen Huang criticized Super Micro’s compliance program and said Nvidia insisted its partners stay compliant, Ars reports via Tom’s Hardware. Monday’s charging document names people inside both firms.

The border still did some work. Fifty-six never cleared; seventy-four did.

The control was supposed to be a manager who would not release B300s without an on-site check that was real.

Nvidia reports earnings Wednesday. That is the calendar.

The crate is a customs problem only after someone in the building says the building is the customer.

Sources

• Nvidia senior manager linked to Supermicro scheme smuggling AI servers to China – Ars Technica
• Taiwan charges 9 over AI server exports to China, including Nvidia, Super Micro staff – Associated Press via ABC News
• 8 indicted over illegal Nvidia server exports to China – Focus Taiwan (CNA)
• Nvidia worker among 9 charged in Taiwan chip smuggling case – CNA
• Nvidia worker, 8 others smuggled AI servers to China, Taiwan prosecutors say – Reuters via Yahoo