Taiwanese prosecutors have indicted senior managers from the Taiwan operations of Nvidia and Supermicro, together with executives of several local companies, over the alleged illegal sale of advanced artificial intelligence servers to buyers in China.
The Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office announced the indictments on Monday, Taiwan’s national news agency CNA reported. Those charged include a distribution manager surnamed Chang at Nvidia’s Taiwan office; two sales managers, surnamed Lin and Wang, at Supermicro’s Taiwan branch; and Lu, chief executive of Albatron Technology, one of Supermicro’s distributors. Also indicted were a project manager at data centre operator Chief Telecom, the head of a customs clearance firm, the head of an international trading company, and the president of server sales company Flying Tiger Technology. All were charged with breach of trust and forgery.
NewsFirst reported that nine people had been indicted and that prosecutors were seeking sentences of up to six years on charges including illegal exports and embezzlement exceeding US$1 million. CNA’s account names eight defendants and states that a ninth man — the person in charge of Flying Tiger, also surnamed Chen — remains wanted by the authorities and had not been indicted as of press time. The two figures appear to describe the same group, counted with and without the man still at large.
How the alleged scheme worked
The servers carried Nvidia’s B300 GPUs, whose distribution is tightly controlled by both manufacturers. Buyers must appear on Nvidia’s whitelist and supply documentation on end users and intended uses, with resale prohibited. Orders of more than eight servers additionally require site inspections by staff from both companies.
Prosecutors allege Flying Tiger obtained whitelist status through undisclosed means in February 2025 and devised an export plan that July. Chief Telecom lacked the electricity capacity and bandwidth to house 130 servers, prosecutors said, but the defendants concealed that and had Chang ask Nvidia to approve the order on the basis that verification was complete — leading Supermicro to agree to the sale.
Of those 130 servers, 74 were ultimately resold, with 50 reaching China via Indonesia and eight routed through Japan and Hong Kong. The remaining 56 were seized in Taiwan. Prosecutors said the Flying Tiger executive still at large received more than US$21.2 million in illicit proceeds.
Washington has restricted exports of certain advanced Nvidia chips to China since 2022. The charges name individuals rather than the companies themselves.
