Super Micro Computer, Inc. co-founder Yih-Shyan “Wally” Liaw has been arrested and charged alongside two company sales executives over an alleged conspiracy to illegally export advanced artificial intelligence chips to China. The Justice Department unsealed an indictment on Thursday naming Liaw, sales executive Ruei-Tsang “Steven” Chang, and Ting-Wei “Willy” Sun in connection with the scheme. Prosecutors allege the three men violated US export control laws by arranging the sale of servers containing sensitive, controlled graphics processing units to buyers in China.
According to the indictment, the alleged scheme involved approximately $2.5 billion worth of servers sold to a Chinese company across 2024 and 2025. Of that total, around $510 million in sales reportedly took place between April and May 2025 alone. Authorities say the defendants used a variety of concealment methods to disguise the true nature and destination of the transactions.
James Barnacle, Jr., FBI assistant director in charge of the New York Field Office, said the defendants allegedly fabricated documents, staged fake equipment to pass audit inventories, and routed transactions through a pass-through company to hide their activities and the identities of their clients. The alleged conduct represents one of the more elaborate export control evasion schemes prosecutors have described in recent years. Authorities say the concealment efforts were deliberate and sustained over an extended period.
Super Micro is a California-based technology company valued at approximately $18.5 billion, specializing in high-performance server and data center hardware for large-scale clients such as IBM. The company counts Nvidia and Google among its infrastructure partners. Super Micro itself was not charged in connection with the alleged scheme.
In a statement provided to media, Super Micro distanced itself from the three individuals and described their alleged conduct as a violation of company policies and compliance controls. A company spokesperson confirmed that Super Micro has been cooperating fully with the government’s investigation and intends to continue doing so. The company emphasized that it has not been named as a defendant in the indictment.
Liaw and Sun have both been arrested and are expected to appear before a judge in the Northern District of California. Chang, described as a Taiwanese citizen currently based outside the United States, has not been taken into custody and is considered a fugitive by the Justice Department. Authorities did not provide further details on efforts to locate him.
Super Micro’s stock had posted gains during regular trading hours on Thursday before the Justice Department’s announcement. Following the news, shares fell 13.25% to $26.71 in after-hours trading. The sharp decline reflects investor concern over the reputational and legal implications of the charges, even as the company itself remains outside the scope of the indictment.
Originally reported by CoinTelegraph.
