Super Micro broker enters guilty plea in scheme to smuggle Nvidia chips to China
A third-party intermediary charged in connection with the illegal diversion of artificial intelligence processors has agreed to plead guilty, marking a significant development in the ongoing case against Super Micro executives.
Ting-Wei "Willy" Sun, a broker and intermediary who faced charges alongside Super Micro co-founder Yih-Shyan "Wally" Liaw and sales manager Ruei-Tsang "Steven" Chang for allegedly orchestrating the unlawful export of Nvidia AI chips to China, has entered a guilty plea. Bloomberg reported that Sun's decision to plead guilty follows a deal struck with prosecutors, though specifics of any potential cooperation agreement have not been made public. Sun is scheduled for sentencing on September 8, 2027.
The investigation into the three individuals surfaced earlier this year after authorities uncovered evidence that they had redirected Super Micro servers equipped with Nvidia processors toward China. According to the findings, the servers were initially sent to a company operating in Southeast Asia, which then falsified documentation and constructed counterfeit server units to deceive inspectors. The scheme involved workers using hair dryers to erase serial numbers from the actual servers, transferring them to the dummy server casings to maintain the deception while the genuine equipment was routed to China. Further examination showed that a Thailand-registered entity served as the receiving point for the servers before they were transferred to Alibaba, despite the Chinese technology company's public denials of acquiring the restricted Nvidia equipment.