Bloomberg reported that Taiwan's prosecutors conducted a raid on the local office of Supermicro, a U.S. server company, amid allegations of smuggling Nvidia's artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China. This marks the first official crackdown in Taiwan related to AI chip smuggling, raising the possibility that Taiwan is aligning its actions with U.S. technology sanctions against China.
According to a statement from the Taipei District Prosecutors Office on June 29, six individuals and three companies are under investigation for allegedly illegally exporting Supermicro servers. While the names of those involved were not disclosed, a source informed Bloomberg that Supermicro's Taiwan office was included in the raid. Additionally, the data center operator Chief Telecom and the distributor Albatrone Technology were also reported as targets of the search.
Supermicro stated, "We are committed to protecting advanced technology and intellectual property rights. Our products have been continuously targeted in these matters, and we are cooperating with judicial authorities and government officials in Taiwan and other jurisdictions to ensure our technology is distributed legally as intended."
This raid is the first official enforcement action by Taiwan regarding AI chip smuggling, occurring amid increasing pressure from the U.S. in recent years to prevent China from accessing advanced technology. Since the Biden administration, the U.S. has blocked the export of advanced AI chips to China due to concerns over military enhancement, with most of Nvidia's advanced AI chips produced by Taiwan's TSMC. Consequently, the U.S. has expressed worries about the potential leakage of AI chips to China through Taiwan.
Previously, Taiwan prosecutors announced the arrest of three suspects last month for allegedly smuggling Supermicro servers containing Nvidia's advanced AI chips to China via Japan on more than one occasion.
Currently, Taiwan does not classify the export of AI chips to China as a crime, but authorities have warned vendors that continuing such exports could violate U.S. regulations. Furthermore, as there are currently no specific provisions in Taiwanese law to sanction AI chip exports to China, Taiwan is reportedly considering tightening controls on these exports to strengthen its relationship with the U.S., according to Bloomberg.
Following the news of the raid, Supermicro's stock price dropped by over 8% on the Taiwan stock market.
* This article has been translated by AI.
Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.