California Man Charged Over Alleged $300 Million Chip Smuggling Operation
A California man has been charged by US authorities for allegedly smuggling $300 million worth of Nvidia artificial intelligence chips to China in violation of export controls.
Greg Lui, the owner of Earthmade Computer, worked with co-conspirators from 2023 to 2024 to ship servers containing restricted chips to buyers in China without required US licenses, according to federal prosecutors.
The Justice Department said that Lui and his associates initially exported the equipment to Malaysia and Singapore, jurisdictions that do not require licenses for the purchase of advanced AI chips from US companies. The servers were then shipped to their final destination in China.
Lui allegedly used false paperwork and shipments through third countries to smuggle the export-controlled computer servers to China, prosecutors argued in a court filing.