Three charged in the US with smuggling AI chips into China | Science and Technology News
Three charged in the US with smuggling AI chips into China | Science and Technology News
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/20/three-charged-in-the-us-with-smuggling-ai-chips-into-china
Publish Date: 2026-03-20 04:06:00
Source Domain: www.aljazeera.com
US charges men reportedly tied to Super Micro Computer for helping to smuggle billions of dollars’ worth of AI chips to China.
Published On 20 Mar 2026
Three people associated with artificial intelligence server maker Super Micro Computer, including its cofounder, have been charged with helping smuggle at least $2.5bn-worth of United States AI technology to China in violation of export laws, according to the US Department of Justice.
US prosecutors did not name Super Micro in the complaint, referring only to a “US manufacturer”, but San Jose, California-based Super Micro said it was informed by federal prosecutors of the indictment on Thursday.
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It noted that the company itself was not named as a defendant in the case and said it had cooperated with investigators.
The Justice Department said it had charged Yih-Shyan Liaw, Ruei-Tsang Chang, and Ting-Wei Sun in an indictment unsealed in federal court in Manhattan on Thursday, on allegations of a complex scheme to send US-made servers through Taiwan to other countries in Southeast Asia, where they were swapped into unmarked boxes and sent on to China.
The US has had export restrictions on China for advanced AI chips since 2022.
In a release, FBI Assistant Director in Charge James Barnacle said the defendants used fabricated documents, staged bogus equipment to pass audit inventories, and used a pass-through company to conceal their misconduct and true clientele list.
US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton said schemes such as this “pose a direct threat to US national security”.
Liaw co-founded Super Micro in 1993 and joined its board of directors in 2023. Chang was a sales manager in the Taiwan office of Super Micro, while Sun was a contractor.
Officials allege the three took extensive measures to conceal their activity both from the US makers of the servers and export control officials, even using hair dryers to remove labels and serial…
