Supermicro has dismissed several employees after an internal investigation into claims that company executives helped smuggle $2.5 billion worth of Nvidia GPU-equipped servers to China in breach of US export controls. The probe followed a March indictment by the US Department of Justice against Supermicro co-founder Yih-Shyan "Wally" Liaw, Taiwan-based executive Ruei-Tsang "Steven" Chang, and alleged broker Ting-Wei "Willy" Sun, who face charges of conspiring to violate export laws, smuggling goods and defrauding the US government. The findings add to a lengthy history of governance troubles at the server maker, including past de-listing scares and an earlier export-related investigation.

Supermicro said its current senior management had no knowledge of the alleged diversion scheme and that no export-controlled products were sold directly to restricted parties, while also confirming that the three men named in the indictment no longer have any relationship with the company. It disclosed further terminations within its sales, technical support and business development teams for breaching company policy or its code of conduct, though it has not specified how many staff were affected or the exact nature of their violations. The board has adopted, and partly implemented, recommendations to strengthen the firm's export compliance programme, effectively acknowledging that its existing safeguards fell short.