3 charged with conspiring to smuggle artificial intelligence to China – NBC Bay Area
3 charged with conspiring to smuggle artificial intelligence to China – NBC Bay Area
Publish Date: 2026-03-20 13:13:00
Source Domain: www.nbcbayarea.com
- Senior Vice President Yih-Shyan Liaw and two other individuals, Ting-Wei Sun and Ruei-Tsang Chang, affiliated with Super Micro Computer Inc., have been charged with conspiring to smuggle billions of dollars’ worth of computer servers with advanced Nvidia chips to China.
- The defendants allegedly violated U.S. export control laws by directing massive quantities of high-performance servers to be diverted from the U.S. to China between 2024 and 2025.
- The scheme involved using fabricated documents and a pass-through company to disguise the operations and customers, according to FBI and U.S. Attorney claims.
- Such schemes pose significant threats to U.S. national security, according to U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, as Nvidia’s processors are crucial for artificial intelligence infrastructure.
- President Joe Biden and his predecessors have maintained restrictions on the sale of Nvidia’s AI chips to China, which is part of a broader competition between the U.S. and China in the AI technology space.
- Yih-Shyan Liaw was arrested, and Sun was taken into custody, while Chang remains a fugitive. Super Micro Computer has stated that the actions alleged against the individuals contravene the company’s compliance policies and stressed its commitment to adhering to export control laws.
