California Man Arrested for Allegedly Smuggling Nvidia Servers to China
Greg Lui, owner of Earthmade Computer Inc., has been arrested on federal charges for allegedly helping to smuggle more than $300 million worth of export-controlled computer servers to China.
The indictment alleges that between 2023 and 2024, Lui and his co-conspirators used Earthmade to buy high-end servers containing U.S.-manufactured graphics processing units (GPUs) from American manufacturers without required Commerce Department licenses.
According to the indictment, the shipments were presented as destined for countries such as Malaysia and Singapore, where export licenses weren't required. However, prosecutors claim that Lui knew the actual end users were in China.
The hardware allegedly included Nvidia A100 and H100 GPUs, which are used for large-scale AI computing. The Justice Department is seeking forfeiture of proceeds it says came from the alleged scheme.