Taiwan reportedly indicted NVIDIA employees for exporting prohibited AI servers to China
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Prosecutors in Keelung, Taiwan, have indicted nine people, including employees of NVIDIA and Super Micro, for illegally exporting high-end AI servers to China in breach of export controls. The case highlights how smuggling networks have continued to circumvent restrictions even as the United States has eased some rules on selling older-generation chips, such as the H200, to Chinese buyers, and comes as Taiwan seeks to avoid friction with US regulators, particularly the Trump administration.
Prosecutors said the defendants "colluded with one another at various levels for enormous profit", knowingly bypassing NVIDIA and Super Micro's "rigorous" compliance procedures and thereby "severely damaging" Taiwan's international reputation. Most NVIDIA chips are produced by TSMC, which manufactures the latest Blackwell chips in Phoenix, Arizona, before shipping them to Taiwan for advanced packaging and final assembly. The indictments follow other reported cases of AI server smuggling routed through third countries, including a suspected $1 billion shipment funnelled via Thailand or Malaysia, and a separate US case involving $3.5 billion in AI servers allegedly diverted to China through third-party nations.
- Taiwan indicted nine NVIDIA and Super Micro employees over illegal AI server exports to China
- Case shows smuggling persists despite eased US rules on older chips
- Similar cases involved billions in servers routed through third countries
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Taiwan's high-end computer chips, made by firms such as NVIDIA, are central to building artificial intelligence systems, and both Taiwan and the United States restrict their export to China over concerns they could boost China's military and technological capabilities. NVIDIA does not manufacture its own chips; most are produced by Taiwan's TSMC, which means Taiwanese export controls sit alongside US rules as a key checkpoint for where this technology can legally go.
Keelung, a port city near Taipei, is where local prosecutors have brought charges against nine individuals connected to NVIDIA and Super Micro, a US company that builds servers using such chips. The case forms part of a wider pattern of alleged smuggling attempts, in which restricted AI hardware is said to have been rerouted through other countries to reach China, skirting the controls meant to stop it.
This matters because it touches on the broader US-China rivalry over advanced technology, where access to powerful AI chips is seen as a strategic advantage. It also comes at a moment when US policy on chip exports to China has been shifting, with some restrictions on older chips relaxed even as authorities pursue cases involving newer, more advanced hardware.