Taiwan has indicted nine individuals, including a senior Nvidia manager and two Supermicro employees, in what appears to be an elaborate scheme to smuggle high-end AI servers into China. The suspects are charged with document forgery and breach of trust, according to Reuters.

Since 2022, the US has imposed strict export controls on semiconductors to safeguard its lead in the global AI race. However, Supermicro co-founder Wally Liaw was arrested in March for allegedly helping ship $2.5 billion worth of restricted AI servers to China since 2024. Taiwan’s probe aims to uncover more details about this ongoing operation.

The investigation revealed that 130 B300 servers were supposed to be installed at a Taiwanese facility, but only 56 found their way there, while the other 74 ended up in China. Customs officials noticed irregularities and blocked the remaining shipments from reaching Chinese customers.

When reached by Ars Technica, neither Supermicro nor Nvidia provided comments on the matter. Supermicro stated that they are cooperating with Taiwanese authorities to protect their advanced technologies and intellectual property, highlighting the importance of industry-government collaboration in safeguarding export controls.