Taiwanese prosecutors said on Monday, August 24, that they had indicted nine people, including employees of Nvidia and Super Micro, over an alleged operation to export advanced artificial intelligence servers to China illegally. The case centers on high-end servers made by Super Micro and fitted with Nvidia processors covered by United States export controls, according to Reuters and the Keelung District Prosecutors Office.
Eight defendants, including one employee of Nvidia's Taiwan unit and two from Super Micro's Taiwan unit, face charges of breach of trust and document forgery, prosecutors said. A ninth defendant faces charges in a related case concerning the alleged diversion of money from a distributor involved in the transactions. Authorities did not publish the defendants' full names, and the charges remain allegations to be tested in court.
Prosecutors said the plan involved orders for 130 B300 servers that documents represented as destined for installation at a rented data facility in Taiwan. Investigators allege that false end-user records concealed the actual destination. Of that total, 74 servers reached customers in China through direct shipments or routes involving Indonesia, Japan and Hong Kong, Reuters and Taipei Times reported.
The remaining 56 servers were intended for export to a company in Japan, but Taiwan customs officers detected irregularities and stopped the shipment, prosecutors said. CNA reported that 50 of the 74 delivered servers traveled through Indonesia, eight through Japan and the balance went directly to China. The accused allegedly knew that Nvidia and Super Micro maintained strict internal controls on exports, the prosecution statement said.
Washington has restricted the sale of leading-edge AI semiconductors to China without a license since 2022. Taiwan, the world's most important manufacturing center for advanced chips, has also tightened controls intended to prevent sensitive technology and expertise from reaching China. Neither Nvidia nor Super Micro immediately responded to Reuters requests for comment on Monday, and prosecutors did not accuse either company itself in the announced indictments.
The indictments move a months-long investigation from suspected diversion to formal criminal proceedings and highlight the difficulty of enforcing chip controls once processors are installed in complete server systems. The court process will determine individual responsibility, while customs authorities and technology suppliers are likely to scrutinize end-user documents, transit routes and distributor oversight more closely.
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