US arrests tech CEO accused of smuggling $300M in Nvidia chips into China
US arrests tech CEO accused of smuggling $300M in Nvidia chips into China
美国逮捕一名科技公司首席执行官，指控其向中国走私价值 3 亿美元的英伟达芯片
The US has arrested another suspect accused of smuggling high-end computer servers containing export-controlled Nvidia chips into China. In a press release on Thursday, the Department of Justice accused 38-year-old Greg Lui of using false paperwork to mask shipments of servers worth more than $300 million that he allegedly knew were ultimately destined for China. 美国已逮捕另一名嫌疑人，指控其将装有受出口管制英伟达（Nvidia）芯片的高端计算机服务器走私至中国。司法部在周四的新闻稿中指控 38 岁的 Greg Lui 使用虚假文件掩盖价值超过 3 亿美元的服务器运输，并称他明知这些货物最终目的地是中国。
As the CEO of Earthmade Computer, Lui allegedly conspired with freight-forwarding firms in South Asian countries like Malaysia and Singapore to illegally divert chip shipments into China, including Nvidia’s A100 GPUs and H100 GPUs, the FBI’s indictment alleged. These are not Nvidia’s most advanced chips. However, the chips can process large amounts of data and train large language models, which the US fears could pose national security risks if China suddenly gets access to enough chips to drastically advance its AI or strengthen its military. 根据联邦调查局（FBI）的起诉书，作为 Earthmade Computer 的首席执行官，Lui 被指控与马来西亚和新加坡等南亚国家的货运代理公司串通，非法将包括英伟达 A100 和 H100 GPU 在内的芯片货物转运至中国。虽然这些并非英伟达最先进的芯片，但它们能够处理海量数据并训练大语言模型。美国担心，如果中国获得足够数量的此类芯片，可能会大幅提升其人工智能水平或增强军事实力，从而构成国家安全风险。
Emails and bank records exposed the smuggling scheme, the DOJ alleged, which started in October 2023 and continued until August 2026. One key piece of evidence is a 2024 email discussing an order for 70 servers with export-restricted GPUs that were fraudulently claimed as destined for Malaysia. After “Lui submitted a purchase order to a US manufacturer for 27 of these servers for approximately $7,614,000,” the DOJ alleged that a co-conspirator told a Malaysian government official that all 27 were shipped to China. 司法部称，电子邮件和银行记录揭露了这一走私计划，该计划始于 2023 年 10 月，一直持续到 2026 年 8 月。一个关键证据是 2024 年的一封电子邮件，其中讨论了一笔包含受出口限制 GPU 的 70 台服务器订单，这些服务器被虚假申报为运往马来西亚。司法部指控，在“Lui 向一家美国制造商提交了其中 27 台服务器的采购订单，金额约为 761.4 万美元”后，一名同谋者告知马来西亚政府官员，这 27 台服务器全部被运往了中国。
A similar shipment of 92 export-controlled servers was allegedly routed through Singapore to Malaysia, then Hong Kong. Finally, the chips went to a Chinese firm based in Hangzhou, the FBI alleged, which The Wall Street Journal last year described as China’s AI hub. Yet another flagged 2024 shipment shows how far Lui allegedly went to fool US officials. When shipping 100 Malaysian-bound servers—each containing Nvidia H100 GPUs worth over $22 million—Lui allegedly submitted fraudulent documentation from a fake buyer identifying its CEO as “Jackie Lui.” FBI 指控，另一批 92 台受出口管制的服务器通过新加坡运往马来西亚，随后转至香港。最终，这些芯片被送往一家位于杭州的中国公司，《华尔街日报》去年曾将该市描述为中国的人工智能中心。另一批 2024 年被标记的货物显示了 Lui 为欺骗美国官员所采取的手段。在运输 100 台运往马来西亚的服务器（每台均包含价值超过 2200 万美元的英伟达 H100 GPU）时，Lui 被指控提交了来自虚假买家的欺诈性文件，并将该买家的首席执行官标识为“Jackie Lui”。
Three years prior, Lui “purchased the identifying documents of an individual whose identity is known to the grand jury and used this identity to conduct business transactions in furtherance of the export evasion scheme,” the FBI alleged. In 2024, Lui’s firm allegedly received more than $176 million from the scheme. Payment records from Lui’s accounts with Bank of America and JP Morgan provided further evidence of how he allegedly operated the smuggling business. Arguing the evidence backs the charges, the DOJ wants to seize all funds gained through the scheme. FBI 指控，三年前，Lui “购买了一名大陪审团已知身份者的身份证件，并利用该身份进行商业交易，以推进其出口规避计划”。2024 年，Lui 的公司据称从该计划中获得了超过 1.76 亿美元的收入。Lui 在美国银行和摩根大通账户的付款记录提供了他如何经营走私业务的进一步证据。司法部认为证据支持这些指控，并寻求没收通过该计划获得的所有资金。
Arrested on three counts, Lui is accused of conspiring to violate the Export Control Reform Act and the Export Administration Regulations, as well as federal smuggling and money laundering laws. He faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty of either the conspiracy or money laundering counts, and the smuggling charge carries a maximum penalty of up to 10 years. Lui 因三项罪名被捕，被控串谋违反《出口管制改革法》和《出口管理条例》，以及联邦走私和洗钱法。如果串谋或洗钱罪名成立，他将面临最高 20 年的监禁，而走私罪的最高刑罚为 10 年。
Nvidia denied seeing red flags
英伟达否认发现预警信号
Lui’s arrest comes after an Nvidia senior manager based in Taiwan was linked to a similar smuggling scheme allegedly run by ex-Supermicro staff in that country. At that time, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang urged Supermicro to fix its compliance problem while claiming there was no evidence of smuggling. Since then, as more arrests have followed, Nvidia has pivoted from denying smuggling to downplaying the role smuggled chips and servers play in China’s AI industry, which is now largely powered by Huawei chips. 在 Lui 被捕之前，一名驻台湾的英伟达高级经理曾被指与当地前超微电脑（Supermicro）员工运营的类似走私计划有关。当时，英伟达首席执行官黄仁勋敦促超微电脑解决其合规问题，同时声称没有证据表明存在走私。此后，随着更多逮捕行动的发生，英伟达的态度已从否认走私转变为淡化走私芯片和服务器在中国人工智能行业中的作用，目前该行业主要由华为芯片驱动。
On Thursday, a spokesperson told Bloomberg that “less than one half of one percent to Nvidia products” have allegedly been diverted to China. “Governments and media have found insignificant diversion of controlled US products—a drop in the bucket compared to the ocean of domestic compute China already has,” Nvidia’s spokesperson said. Experts suggest that the black market is “hard to measure,” though, and likely much bigger than has been reported. 周四，一位发言人告诉彭博社，据称“不到 0.5% 的英伟达产品”被转运至中国。英伟达发言人表示：“政府和媒体发现受控美国产品的转运量微不足道——与中国已经拥有的庞大国内计算能力相比，这只是沧海一粟。”然而，专家认为黑市“难以衡量”，且规模可能远超报道。
Increasingly, Nvidia faces questions about its own “blind spots” when it comes to compliance with export controls, according to a lengthy Bloomberg investigation “based on conversations with dozens of people across five countries.” Officials around the world suspect that hundreds of thousands of AI chips are being exchanged in a sprawling shadow trade likely powering small data centers and potentially even “a handful of hyperscalers” in China. These chips could fill a hardware gap that China doesn’t expect to address on its own until 2030, one “top executive” told Bloomberg. 据彭博社一项“基于与五个国家数十人交谈”的深度调查显示，英伟达在遵守出口管制方面的“盲点”正日益受到质疑。世界各地的官员怀疑，数十万枚人工智能芯片正在庞大的影子贸易中流通，可能为中国的小型数据中心甚至“少数超大规模计算中心”提供动力。一位“高管”告诉彭博社，这些芯片可以填补中国预计要到 2030 年才能自行解决的硬件缺口。
Rushing to cut off the supply, US officials want Nvidia to voluntarily tighten its protocols and flag more suspicious shipments. That way, the chips don’t end up going to leading Chinese firms that Donald Trump has accused of stealing US technology to quickly expand Chinese AI capabilities, like DeepSeek. “Government officials and industry experts are increasingly pointing to gaps in Nvidia’s due diligence, questioning how the company failed to catch red flags,” Bloomberg reported. 为了切断供应，美国官员希望英伟达主动收紧协议并标记更多可疑货物。这样，芯片就不会流向唐纳德·特朗普指控窃取美国技术以迅速扩大中国人工智能能力的中国领先企业，例如 DeepSeek。《彭博社》报道称：“政府官员和行业专家越来越多地指出英伟达尽职调查中的漏洞，质疑该公司为何未能发现预警信号。”
Officials suggested the most scrutinized shipments ought to be facilities in Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. Nvidia screens buyers and has blocked shipments when end buyers are unknown, but it’s not detecting seemingly obvious fraudulent shipments that some US officials think could easily be flagged. For example, Nvidia and Supermicro visited a Taiwanese facility that bought high-end chips that were quickly passed on to a Chinese firm. Eventually, Taiwan’s Coast Guard “noticed discrepancies in shipping manifests,” Bloomberg reported, and seized the bulk of export-controlled servers. However, the FBI alleged that Nvidia could’ve stopped the shipments before they started since the facility “was clearly insufficient to house all the ordered servers.” Instead of exercising “basic scrutiny,” both chipmakers authorized the deal anyway, Bloomberg reported. 官员们建议，应重点审查运往泰国、马来西亚和新加坡设施的货物。英伟达会对买家进行筛选，并在最终买家不明时阻止发货，但它未能检测到一些美国官员认为很容易标记的、看似明显的欺诈性运输。例如，英伟达和超微电脑曾访问过一家台湾设施，该设施购买的高端芯片很快被转手给了一家中国公司。据彭博社报道，最终台湾海岸警卫队“注意到运输清单存在差异”，并扣押了大部分受出口管制的服务器。然而，FBI 指控英伟达本可以在发货前阻止这些运输，因为该设施“显然不足以容纳所有订购的服务器”。彭博社报道称，两家芯片制造商不仅没有进行“基本的审查”，反而批准了这笔交易。