Technology
Taiwan indicts nine over alleged illegal export of AI servers to China
Employees from Nvidia and Supermicro units are among those charged in Keelung with breach of trust and document forgery.
The short version
- Taiwanese prosecutors indicted nine people, including employees from Taiwan units of Nvidia and Supermicro, for allegedly smuggling high-end AI servers into China.
- Authorities seized 56 servers at Taiwan's border and tracked others shipped through Indonesia and Japan or directly to China.
- Taiwan prosecutors relied on breach of trust and forgery laws rather than direct criminal export violations, and both companies say they are cooperating with investigators.
Key facts
- Prosecutors in Keelung indicted nine individuals, charging eight with breach of trust and document forgery and three with embezzlement.[Al Jazeera]
- The defendants include one employee from Nvidia's Taiwan unit and two former employees from Supermicro's Taiwan subsidiary.[Al Jazeera]
- Authorities confiscated 56 AI servers at Taiwan's border, while 50 others were routed via Indonesia, eight via Japan, and the remainder directly to China.[Al Jazeera]
- Prosecutors are requesting up to five-year prison sentences for seven defendants and lighter sentences for two who confessed.[Al Jazeera]
- Supermicro stated that its cooperation led to the arrests and noted that it is not a target of the investigation.[Al Jazeera]
What remains uncertain
- The exact number of servers sent directly to China beyond those transshipped or seized remains unspecified by prosecutors.[Al Jazeera]