AI chip smuggling cases tracker: every Nvidia server prosecution, dated

This page tracks US prosecutions over Nvidia-powered AI servers sent to China in breach of export controls. It is updated when a case moves. Everything here is an allegation unless a plea or verdict is stated, and defendants are presumed innocent. Last updated October 12, 2026.

The short version

Two US cases are public. One, in New York, alleges about $2.5 billion of servers moved through Southeast Asia, and one defendant has pleaded guilty. The other, in Los Angeles, alleges more than $300 million. Both describe the same method: ship the hardware to an intermediary abroad, then on to China, with false paperwork along the way.

Case log

Super Micro case, Southern District of New York

• March 2026: An indictment is unsealed in Manhattan against Yih-Shyan "Wally" Liaw, a Super Micro co-founder who joined the board in 2023, Ruei-Tsang "Steven" Chang, a former sales manager in Taiwan, and contractor Ting-Wei "Willy" Sun, per Al Jazeera. The Justice Department said the scheme helped smuggle at least $2.5 billion of US AI technology. Prosecutors allege fabricated documents, dummy equipment for audits and a pass-through company. Super Micro is not a defendant.
• Alleged start date: Around October 2023, per Reuters. The restricted hardware includes servers carrying Nvidia B200, H100 and H200 GPUs.
• Liaw: Arrested in California, released on bail, pleaded not guilty. TNW reports he has left the company's board.
• Chang: Described as a fugitive in March by Al Jazeera; TNW says he has not appeared in court.
• October 8, 2026: Sun pleads guilty to four counts: conspiracy to violate export controls, smuggling, defrauding the United States and obstruction of justice, per Reuters. TNW, citing Bloomberg, reports sentencing in September 2027.

Earthmade Computer case, Central District of California

• September 29, 2026: Indictment returned against Greg Lui, 38, of San Gabriel, who owns Earthmade Computer Inc., per the Justice Department.
• October 1, 2026: Lui is arrested. Charges are conspiracy to violate the Export Control Reform Act, outbound smuggling and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
• Alleged scale: More than $300 million in export-controlled servers, 2023 to 2024. Earthmade allegedly received more than $176 million from two Malaysia-based shipment companies between January and October 2024. In one order, 27 servers were bought for about $7.6 million and shipped from Los Angeles to Kuala Lumpur.
• Our detailed explainer: what the Greg Lui indictment alleges.

Other enforcement signals

AI Weekly's summary of a Bloomberg feature from October 1, 2026 lists further signals, none of them a US case: a Singapore authorities' seizure of a mansion valued at SGD 55 million that it ties to the trade, an intercepted cargo in Taiwan, and a September 2026 investigation by C4ADS that traced restricted Nvidia processors through universities and Southeast Asian transshipment networks. We could not open the Bloomberg feature, and the summary gives no dates or defendants for the first two, so we log them as unconfirmed leads.

What Nvidia and the government have said

• Nvidia: According to Bloomberg via AI Weekly, the company removed more than half of its previously authorized Asian AI chip buyers after tightening its whitelist, with added diligence in Singapore, Malaysia and Japan, and called smuggling "a nonstarter." In March, Nvidia said "strict compliance" with export laws is a top priority, per Al Jazeera.
• Prosecutors: Jay Clayton, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said such schemes "pose a direct threat to US national security," per Al Jazeera. John A. Eisenberg, the Justice Department's Assistant Attorney General for National Security, said in the Lui release: "SI is the defining technology of the era," using the release's own abbreviation.
• Super Micro: Not a defendant. It says it terminated Sun and cut ties with the other defendants, and that the matter has had no impact on its operations, per Reuters.

How to read a number in this log

Three kinds of figure appear above and they should not be mixed. An allegation, such as the .5 billion and the 00 million, is what prosecutors say in an indictment. A plea, such as Sun's, is an admission by one defendant to specific counts and says little about the totals. A company statement, such as Nvidia's whitelist change, is a claim we report and date but cannot verify from the pages we opened. When a case ends in a verdict or a sentencing, the figure that matters will be the one the court accepts, which may be lower than the indictment's.

What this does and does not show

The cases show method: shell companies, relabeled boxes, dummy servers for audits and false statements to inspectors. They show that prosecutors can win pleas. They do not give a total. Export controls have been in place since 2022, per Al Jazeera, and no source we opened estimates how many restricted chips reached China overall, so any headline total built from these cases is a floor for two defendants, not a measure of leakage.

What we are watching

• Whether Liaw changes his plea after Sun's deal.
• Whether Chang is located and brought to court.
• Whether Commerce changes how it checks servers declared to be in storage; the indictment says an inspector was misled on exactly that.
• Whether further cases cite the same Southeast Asian intermediaries.

Our take

Enforcement is now producing outcomes, which matters because the policy depends on it. We will add a new entry each time a plea, trial date, indictment or rule change is public, and we will mark every figure as an allegation until a court says otherwise.