A contractor for Super Micro pleaded guilty to smuggling about $2.5 billion in Nvidia AI servers to China.
Ting-Wei "Willy" Sun, a contractor linked to Super Micro Computer, pleaded guilty to four counts in connection with an illegal scheme to ship Nvidia (NVDA)-powered AI servers to China, according to court records reported by Reuters. Sun entered his plea in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Thursday.
The charges cover four separate conspiracies: breaching U.S. export control laws, unlawfully removing goods from the country, defrauding the government, and obstructing justice. Sun is scheduled to be sentenced in September 2027, according to The Next Web.
Prosecutors charged Sun and two others in March with conspiring to divert roughly $2.5 billion worth of U.S. AI technology to China in violation of export laws. The operation started around October 2023, when Sun and his co-conspirators allegedly began shipping servers made by a U.S. company, widely understood to be Super Micro, into China without obtaining the licenses required under export law. Court documents portray Sun as a broker and "fixer" who arranged transactions and worked to keep the operation hidden from authorities.
Sun also arranged for fake "dummy" servers to be placed on-site in December 2025 and lied to a U.S. Department of Commerce official who came to inspect units that had in fact already been shipped to China, according to the indictment. According to authorities, he and his co-conspirators funneled Nvidia-powered servers through a Southeast Asian intermediary, which ultimately delivered them to end customers in China. The indictment named Nvidia's B200, H100, and H200 graphics processing units, and servers containing them, as subject to U.S. export restrictions.
March's charges also named Super Micro co-founder Yih-Shyan "Wally" Liaw and Ruei-Tsang "Steven" Chang, a sales manager based at Super Micro's Taiwan office. Liaw co-founded Super Micro in 1993 and joined its board in 2023. According to The Next Web, Liaw has pleaded not guilty and has left the company's board. Chang has not appeared in court.
Super Micro is not named as a defendant. The California-based company said the case has no impact on its business operations and that it terminated Sun and cut ties with the other defendants earlier this year. Super Micro said in August that its current senior leaders had no knowledge of the scheme and that it is cooperating with investigators.
The case is part of a broader effort by U.S. authorities to enforce restrictions on advanced AI chip exports to China. Washington has barred Nvidia's advanced AI chips from reaching China since 2022, citing national security concerns. The U.S. and China are competing for dominance in AI, with both investing heavily in technology seen as critical to economic growth and military capabilities.
Taiwan prosecutors separately charged nine people, including former employees of Nvidia and Super Micro, with facilitating the shipment of dozens of advanced AI servers to China in violation of U.S. export controls. Prosecutors in Taiwan have said it is too early to determine whether the two investigations are connected.