Taiwan indicts nine over alleged illegal export of AI servers to China

Taiwanese prosecutors on Monday indicted nine people, including employees of Nvidia and Super Micro, over the alleged illegal export of high-end artificial intelligence servers to China.

Prosecutors in the port city of Keelung said eight defendants, including one employee of Nvidia’s Taiwan unit and two employees of Super Micro’s Taiwan subsidiary, were charged with breach of trust and document forgery. A ninth defendant faces charges in a related case involving the alleged diversion of funds from a distributor.

The investigation focused on 130 B300 servers ordered from Super Micro that were allegedly supposed to be installed at a rented facility in Taiwan. Prosecutors said false end-user documents were submitted to show that the servers would remain in Taiwan.

Of the 130 servers, 74 were allegedly exported to Chinese customers through direct shipments and transhipments via Indonesia, Japan and Hong Kong. Taiwan customs officials stopped the export of the remaining 56 servers after detecting irregularities in plans to ship them to a Japanese company.

US export controls introduced since 2022 restrict the sale or export of advanced AI semiconductors to China without a licence.

Prosecutors said the defendants were fully aware of the strict export-control procedures maintained by Nvidia and Super Micro but allegedly colluded to make large profits by bypassing them.

Nvidia said its employees have an incentive to comply with all applicable laws and that it would cooperate with Taiwanese authorities. Super Micro said its cooperation with authorities led to the arrests and stressed that the company itself is not a target of the investigation and has not been accused of wrongdoing.

Taiwan has tightened export controls in recent years to prevent advanced technology and expertise from reaching China, which claims the self-governed island as part of its territory.