US export controls made NVIDIA's AI chips so valuable in China that an entire smuggling industry grew up around them. Officials now say NVIDIA had chances to notice — and didn't.
Federal prosecutors arrested Greg Lui for moving servers with $300M in restricted chips to China. Bloomberg reports it's part of a
$2.5B scheme: Super Micro co-founder "Wally" Liaw allegedly sold servers to a Bangkok front company, ostensibly for Thailand — they went straight to China, serial numbers stripped with a red hair dryer.NVIDIA disputes any negligence. CEO Jensen Huang declined Congress's invitation to testify; Senator Warren's reply was short: "If he has time for a $1M-a-head dinner at Mar-a-Lago, he can find time for us."
The hair dryer is still plugged in.
Engadget