US prosecutors charged Yih-Shyan “Wally” Liaw for scheming to send high-performance computer servers assembled in the US with sophisticated AI capabilities to China, in violation of US export control laws.
It is alleged that Liaw and other employees at the company sold the AI technology through a Southeast Asian company, knowing that it will be sent to China. Others charged in an indictment, which was unsealed on Thursday include Ruei-Tsan “Steven” Chang and Ting-Wei “Willy” Sun, who worked together to violate the Export Control Reform Act.
These products allegedly smuggled “are subject to strict US export controls barring their sale to China without a license,” the indictment stated, quoting the plaintiff. Liaw is also a member of the board of directors at Super Micro and owns shares worth $464 million of the company.
Super Micro in its response stated that while it has not been named as a defendant, Liaw works as a Senior VP of business development, Chang is a sales manager in Taiwan, while Sun is a contractor. The concerned employees have been placed on leave and relationship with the contractor has also been terminated.
“Supermicro maintains a robust compliance program and is committed to full adherence to all applicable U.S. export and re-export control laws and regulations,” the company response read.
The indictment order states that a South East Asian company, acting as a middleman, compiled fake paperwork to appear as if it will use those servers, and then had a separate logistics firm repackage the servers to conceal them before sending them to China. Servers worth over $510 million were sold between late April to mid-May of 2025 and has yielded over $2.5 billion in sales for Super Micro since 2024.
Nvidia received a license to export the H20 chips to China recently, with the company agreeing to provide the US with 15% of its sales to China.
