A contractor linked to Super Micro Computer has pleaded guilty to helping illegally ship advanced AI servers fitted with Nvidia chips to China, according to a US federal court filing.
The case comes as Washington steps up efforts to prevent China from accessing advanced AI technology.
Ting-Wei “Willy” Sun entered the plea on Thursday in a Manhattan federal court, admitting guilt to four counts, including conspiracies to violate US export controls, smuggle goods, defraud the United States and obstruct justice.
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The case stems from an alleged operation to ship advanced computing servers to China without the required export licences, as per Reuters. US prosecutors charged Sun and two other individuals in March with conspiring to divert around $2.5 billion worth of American AI technology to China.
The alleged scheme began around October 2023 and involved servers from a US manufacturer widely believed to be Super Micro. The indictment identified Nvidia's B200, H100 and H200 graphics processing units (GPUs), along with servers containing those chips, as products subject to US export restrictions.
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Alleged Concealment of Diverted Servers
Prosecutors described Sun as a broker and fixer who helped facilitate orders and conceal the operation. According to the indictment, he arranged for dummy servers to be staged in December 2025 and made false statements to a US Department of Commerce officer during an inspection.
The servers were purportedly being stored, but prosecutors alleged they had already been diverted to China.
The other defendants include Yih-Shyan “Wally” Liaw, a Super Micro co-founder, and Ruei-Tsang “Steven” Chang, a former sales manager at the company's Taiwan office. Both were indicted in March. The supplied report does not indicate that either has entered a guilty plea.
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Super Micro Distances Itself from Case
Super Micro said previously that it was not named as a defendant in the indictment and that the case had not affected its business operations. The company terminated Sun and cut ties with the other defendants earlier this year.
The case comes amid intensifying US-China competition over AI, with Washington restricting exports of advanced chips on national security grounds. Such processors are central to training and running sophisticated AI systems, making enforcement of export controls a significant issue for the technology industry.
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