Recently, the U.S. Department of Justice disclosed details of a chip smuggling case. In this case, a Hong Kong-born Chinese national and two U.S. citizens stand accused of conspiring to illicitly acquire high-end NVIDIA AI chips, which are subject to export controls. They allegedly did so through a Thai 'intermediary company' with the intention of shipping them to China. According to the indictment, the U.S. server manufacturer Supermicro was also drawn into the case. Nevertheless, in contrast to the prior arrest of Supermicro's co-founder, both NVIDIA and Supermicro seem to have played a pivotal role in thwarting the smuggling attempt this time around.
