Supermicro Founder Faces Charges in Massive $2.5B AI Server Export Conspiracy
Federal prosecutors have indicted and taken into custody Yih-Shyan "Wally" Liaw, co-founder of Supermicro, on allegations of orchestrating a scheme to illegally export $2.5 billion worth of AI servers to China using fraudulent corporate entities.
Federal prosecutors have announced that the co-founder of Super Micro Computer, Inc. faces criminal charges and has been taken into custody in connection with an alleged billion-dollar conspiracy to illegally transport cutting-edge artificial intelligence processors from the United States to China.
In a Thursday announcement, the Justice Department revealed it had made public an indictment naming Yih-Shyan "Wally" Liaw, along with Super Micro sales executives Ruei-Tsang "Steven" Chang and Ting-Wei "Willy" Sun, in the purported criminal conspiracy.
According to federal prosecutors, the three individuals breached US export control regulations through their conspiracy "to sell billions of dollars' worth of servers integrating sensitive, controlled graphic processing units to buyers in China."
Super Micro, which has not been named as a defendant in the case, operates as an $18.5 billion technology corporation based in California that focuses on manufacturing high-performance server and data center equipment for major enterprises including IBM. The company maintains infrastructure partnerships with industry leaders such as Nvidia and Google.
Federal authorities allege that the conspiracy involved the three defendants employing various methods of concealment to mask the transfer of approximately $2.5 billion in server equipment to a Chinese entity throughout 2024 and 2025, with transactions worth $510 million taking place during the April to May 2025 period alone.
"These defendants allegedly fabricated documents, staged bogus equipment to pass audit inventories, and used a pass-through company to conceal their misconduct and true clientele list,"
James Barnacle, Jr., FBI assistant director in charge of the New York Field Office
Both Liaw and Sun are currently in custody and are scheduled to appear before a federal judge in the Northern District of California. Chang, identified by the Justice Department as a Taiwanese national residing outside United States borders, "remains a fugitive."
Super Micro stock dives, company says it's cooperating
Through a statement provided to Cointelegraph, Super Micro separated itself from the three individuals and characterized the alleged conduct as a "contravention of the Company's policies and compliance controls."
"The company has been cooperating fully with the government's investigation and will continue to do so. Supermicro has not been named as a defendant in the indictment,"
a company spokesperson
Shares of Super Micro had initially experienced gains during standard trading hours on Thursday. In the wake of the Justice Department's public announcement, however, the company's stock has subsequently declined 13.25% to reach $26.71 during after-hours trading activity.