A contractor for Super Micro pleaded guilty in a scheme to divert AI servers containing Nvidia chips to China.

In March, US prosecutors charged Ting-Wei "Willy" Sun and two others associated with Super Micro, including a co-founder, with conspiring to divert about $2.5 billion worth of US AI technology to China in violation of export laws.

A contractor linked to Super Micro Computer has pleaded guilty in a scheme to illegally export computer servers containing advanced Nvidia AI chips to China, according to a court filing on Friday. The court docket showed Sun entered his guilty plea on Thursday in US District Court in Manhattan.

Super Micro did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Its shares were down marginally in extended trading.

The alleged scheme began around 2024, with the defendants accused of using a company in Southeast Asia as a pass-through entity to conceal the China-based end customers, according to the indictment.

The United States and China are competing for dominance in artificial intelligence, with both investing billions of dollars in a technology seen as critical to economic growth, national security and military and cybersecurity capabilities.

Washington has tightened export controls, restricting sales of advanced AI chips and server systems to China without a license, citing national security concerns. The indictment said Nvidia's B200, H100 and H200 graphics processing units, and servers containing them, are on the Commerce Control List and subject to the restrictions.