Catenaa, Friday, March 20, 2026- Super Micro Computer stock fell over 28% on Friday after its co-founder was charged with illegally diverting billions of dollars in Nvidia-powered servers to China.
The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York has charged Yih-Shyan “Wally” Liaw, Ruei-Tsan “Steven” Chang, and Ting-Wei “Willy” Sun, working together to violate the Export Control Reform Act.
Liaw is a co-founder of server maker Super Micro Computer and a member of its board of directors. He controls $464 million worth of Super Micro shares, according to FactSet.
US government has been trying to figure out how high-powered chips have reached China without authorization, as American AI companies such as Anthropic and OpenAI face challenges from DeepSeek and other Chinese rivals.
The server company’s products containing Nvidia chips “are subject to strict U.S. export controls barring their sale to China without a license,” the plaintiff said in the indictment. “Those controls are in place to protect US national security and foreign policy interests, among other things.”
Shares of Super Micro fell by over 28% on Friday after a federal court released the indictment.
Super Micro said that while the company isn’t named as a defendant, Liaw works as senior vice president of business development, Chang is a sales manager in Taiwan, and Sun is a contractor. The company has placed the employees on leave and ended its relationship with the contractor.
Liaw and Sun were both arrested on Thursday, while Chang is a fugitive, the attorney’s office said.
“The conduct by these individuals alleged in the indictment is a contravention of the Company’s policies and compliance controls, including efforts to circumvent applicable export control laws and regulations,” according to a statement. “Supermicro maintains a robust compliance program and is committed to full adherence to all applicable US export and re-export control laws and regulations.”
