Billionaire co-founder of American technology giant charged with smuggling Nvidia chips to China
Co-founder of Super Micro Computer Yih-Shyan “Wally” Liaw has resigned from the company’s board after being indicted in the US for allegedly smuggling equipment containing Nvidia artificial intelligence chips into China. Yih-Shyan Liaw co-founded Super Micro in 1993, and joined its board of directors in 2023. Liaw along with Ruei-Tsang Chang, and Ting-Wei Sun in an indictment have been charged for violating US export laws. The indictment accuses the trio of a complex scheme to send US-made servers to other countries in Southeast Asia through Taiwan.
Super Micro Computer announces resignation of board member Yih-Shyan “Wally” Liaw
In an official press release, the AI computing firm said that Liaw is stepping down from the board, which will now have eight members. “Following Mr. Liaw’s resignation, the Company’s Board comprises eight directors,” Super Micro said. “There are no changes to the Board’s committee structure.”The Company also announced that it has appointed DeAnna Luna as acting Chief Compliance Officer, effective immediately. “Ms. Luna brings to this role more than two decades of experience in global trade compliance, governance, highly regulated markets, and legal risk management. Prior to joining Supermicro in 2024 as Vice President of Global Trade & Sanctions Compliance, she served as Director Global Export Licensing & Classification at Intel Corporation and as Senior Director of Global Trade Compliance at Teledyne Technologies, among other roles. Ms. Luna holds a B.A. in International Business from San Diego State University,” the release said.
Charges against Super Micro co-founder and others
The US has restricted exports of advanced AI chips to China since 2022. US officials accuse the trio – Liaw, Chang and Sun of concealing their activity from both the US-based makers of servers and US export officials. It claims that the three took extensive measures like using hair dryers to remove labels and serial numbers from the real machines, and placing them on dummy machines left. These were later shipped to China.
