Taiwan · China · Nvidia · The Register
Supermicro fired staff after probe into $2.5 billion GPUs-to-China smuggling operation
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Key facts
- Supermicro has fired some staff after conducting an investigation into allegations that its execs participated in a scheme to ship $2.5 billion worth of servers packing Nvidia GPUs to China
- But not all is well, as it seems Supermicro did find staff who failed to properly implement US export controls
- Nor did the investigation find that the Company directly sold export-controlled products to known restricted parties or locations
- The company says the three people named in the indictment “no longer have any relationship with Supermicro.” That suggests Liaw and Chang were let go
Summary
Supermicro has fired some staff after conducting an investigation into allegations that its execs participated in a scheme to ship $2.5 billion worth of servers packing Nvidia GPUs to China, in violation of US export controls. In March, the US Department of Justice indicted Supermicro co-founder Yih-Shyan "Wally" Liaw, one of the company’s Taiwan-based execs Ruei-Tsang "Steven" Chang, and a man thought to act as a broker, Ting-Wei "Willy" Sun, with conspiring to violate the Export Controls Reform Act, conspiring to smuggle goods and defrauding the US government. Supermicro promised to investigate and on Thursday delivered its verdict: nobody on its current senior management team “had knowledge of the alleged diversion scheme or of any actual diversion of restricted products by the Company.” “Nor did the investigation find that the Company directly sold export-controlled products to known restricted parties or locations.