Super Micro contractor pleads guilty to illegal $2.5B Nvidia chip transfers to China

A contractor for Super Micro Computer has pleaded guilty in a Manhattan federal court to participating in a conspiracy to illegally transport approximately $2.5 billion worth of AI servers containing Nvidia chips to China.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the scheme involved falsifying documents and setting up fake equipment to pass audits. The high-end servers, which include Nvidia B200, H100, and H200 chips, are subject to U.S. export controls. The process involved shipping servers manufactured in the U.S. to Taiwan, then to other Southeast Asian countries, where they were repackaged in unbranded boxes before being sold in China.

The illegal transfers occurred amid intensifying competition between the U.S. and China in the artificial intelligence sector, where Washington has tightened export restrictions on advanced technology due to national security concerns.