Photo: Solomon203, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0), via Wikimedia Commons (source)
A contractor linked to Super Micro Computer pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to four counts tied to an alleged scheme to divert U.S.-assembled artificial-intelligence servers with advanced Nvidia chips to China, DatacenterDynamics and The Next Web reported, citing court filings and Bloomberg.
Ting-Wei "Willy" Sun entered the plea as part of an agreement with prosecutors, The Next Web said, summarizing Bloomberg's account. DatacenterDynamics said the counts cover export-control violations, smuggling, defrauding the United States and obstruction of justice, and that sentencing is set for Sept. 8, 2027. Outlets differed slightly on the hearing date: The Next Web, citing Bloomberg, placed the plea on Thursday, Oct. 8; DatacenterDynamics dated it Oct. 9.
The March indictment
In March, the Justice Department announced charges against Sun, Super Micro co-founder Yih-Shyan "Wally" Liaw and Ruei-Tsang "Steven" Chang, a general manager in the company's Taiwan office. Prosecutors alleged the three conspired to divert high-performance servers assembled in the United States and fitted with controlled AI graphics processing units to customers in China without Commerce Department licenses.
According to the indictment described in the Justice Department release, a Southeast Asian company ordered servers from the U.S. manufacturer; many were built in the United States, moved through Taiwan and then repackaged for delivery into China. Between 2024 and 2025, that company bought roughly $2.5 billion in servers from the manufacturer, the release said. In a stretch from late April to mid-May 2025 alone, prosecutors alleged about $510 million worth of U.S.-assembled servers were diverted.
The Justice Department said the defendants staged "dummy" servers and falsified records to mislead the manufacturer's compliance team and later a Commerce Department inspection, including by moving serial-number labels with a hair dryer. Surveillance images released with the March announcement showed Sun and another broker preparing dummy units, The Next Web noted.
Company status and co-defendants
Super Micro is not a defendant. DatacenterDynamics reported that Liaw resigned from the board after his arrest and pleaded not guilty in early April. Chang has not appeared in the case, The Next Web said. Asked about the plea, Super Micro referred reporters to earlier statements that it was not charged, had cut ties with the defendants and was cooperating with investigators, according to both outlets.
Washington restricts exports of advanced Nvidia B200, H100 and H200 GPUs and servers that contain them to China on national-security grounds, the March indictment said, as summarized by DatacenterDynamics and The Next Web.
What's next
Sun's sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 8, 2027, DatacenterDynamics reported. Liaw's not-guilty plea stands; The Next Web said a trial date had been discussed in related coverage of the case. Prosecutors last week also charged a California man in a separate alleged $300 million AI-server diversion to China, The Next Web reported.
Sources
- DatacenterDynamics: Supermicro contractor Ting-Wei "Willy" Sun pleads guilty to four counts associated with Nvidia chip smuggling charges (2026-10-12)
- The Next Web: Super Micro case ‘fixer’ pleads guilty to sending AI servers to China (2026-10-10)
- U.S. Department of Justice: Three Charged with Conspiring to Unlawfully Divert Cutting Edge U.S. Artificial Intelligence Technology to China (2026-03-19)
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