Nine charged in Taiwan over reselling Nvidia AI servers to China
Taiwanese prosecutors have charged nine people with smuggling top-end Nvidia AI servers into China, a sign that export controls on advanced chips are being enforced harder.
- A Taiwanese company got onto Nvidia's approved-buyer list, bought 130 flagship B300 AI servers, and resold them into China for more than NT$600 million in profit.
- Staff at Nvidia's and Supermicro's Taiwan units were allegedly in on it, signing off on fake site inspections at a rented data centre that made the buyer look legitimate.
- The servers went out in three batches, routed through shell companies and even through Japan to hide the final destination.
- Customs stopped the last 56 machines, and prosecutors are seeking up to six years in prison; the main company boss is still on the run.
Outlook: Expect tighter vetting of Asian resellers by Nvidia and Supermicro, and more cases like this as demand for banned AI chips in China stays high.