Taiwan indicts nine individuals over illegal AI server exports to China

Taiwan prosecutors announced Monday that nine individuals have been indicted for their role in the unlawful export of artificial-intelligence servers to China. The charges include breach of trust and document forgery and involve employees of Nvidia's Taiwan unit and two staff members of Super Micro's Taiwan operation.

According to the Keelung prosecutor's office, the scheme involved falsifying end-user documents to make it appear that 130 Super Micro B300 servers would be installed at a rented facility in Taiwan. While 74 of those servers were ultimately shipped to Chinese customers via direct and trans-shipment routes through Indonesia, Japan and Hong Kong, the remaining 56 were intercepted by Taiwan customs after irregularities were detected.

"The defendants were fully aware that both Nvidia and Super Micro have rigorous internal control procedures regarding exports," the statement said.

The indictment comes as Taiwan has tightened its export controls to prevent advanced technology from reaching China, which claims the island as its own territory despite opposition from the Taiwanese government. Neither Nvidia nor Super Micro responded to requests for comment.