Supermicro denies that its places of work had been raided by Taiwanese authorities in Nvidia GPU smuggling case — firm says that it coordinated with the police and offered entry to investigated staff’ workstations and devices

Taiwanese authorities have been stepping up their investigation into the alleged AI GPU smuggling by some Supermicro staff, and it was lately reported that the police “raided” the corporate’s Taipei workplace. However, Digitimes stories that the agency is pushing again towards this characterization, with Supermicro insisting that it’s cooperating with the investigation. Instead, it voluntarily gave investigators entry to the workstations and digital units of the staff suspected of violating U.S. export controls whereas additionally putting them on administrative depart.

“Supermicro’s offices in Taiwan were not raided by any government authorities,” Supermicro Chief Revenue Officer Matt Thauberger instructed prospects and companions in a written assertion. He additionally confirmed with the Taiwanese authorities that the corporate was not the goal of any investigation and that it has been cooperating since May of this yr. “We have zero tolerance for anyone who violates the law or our internal policies,” he additionally wrote within the letter.

Supermicro insists that it’s cooperating with officers within the investigation and even gave them entry, and as such the police intervention wasn’t technically a “raid.” It stays unclear, although, how lengthy the corporate knew concerning the pending police motion earlier than the authorities arrived on the premises.

This investigation is a part of Taiwan’s push to investigate the alleged smuggling of Nvidia AI chips into China through its territory. The island does not have any laws that echo the U.S.’s export controls, so it’s using a loose interpretation of other regulations. This is similar to what Singapore is doing, which recently seized a $42 million mansion and $772k stashed in a bank account that are owned by alleged AI GPU smugglers. But because it also does not have export control laws like Taiwan, the accused are instead charged with fraud and money laundering.

Aside from the case brought against Supermicro employees in Taiwan, three other individuals linked to the company, including its co-founder, Yih-Shyan “Wally” Liaw, have been arrested in the U.S. on charges of conspiring to violate the Export Controls Reform Act. They allegedly used a hairdryer to soften the glue on thousands of serial numbers on the banned servers and moved them to dummy units to make them harder to track. They were then reportedly shipped via a Thailand-based government-related entity before landing in Chinese tech giant Alibaba’s warehouses.

Although Supermicro isn’t directly accused in these two cases, the fact that many of its employees are being investigated and charged is probably raising concern among its partners and customers. It has even gotten to the point that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has urged it to fix its export compliance controls. This is likely the reason why the company has taken moves to clarify the situation, which has already caused its stock price to slide by 8% in U.S. trading.

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