Supermicro's co-founder smuggled $2.5B in Nvidia-chipped servers to China

Supermicro's co-founder smuggled $2.5B in Nvidia-chipped servers to China(finance.yahoo.com)

6 points by rmason 12 days ago | 4 comments

rmason 12 days ago |

I worked for a hosting company and the boss was a super fan of Supermicro. He was 100% with them. He liked deals and they'd call us weekly if they were long on something.

If this is true I am truly shocked. Supermicro was founded in Taiwan. I have been on livestreams with a friend who moved there and had Chinese Air Force planes flying over the bay outside his window. He said they will test defenses a couple of times a year. To live with that and still decide to betray your country as well as giving China a step up in the AI race.

sameers 12 days ago | |

Idk about the percentages but my impression is that there is a substantial pro-unification contingent in the Taiwanese population. Not everyone sees it as a threat, to align with the CCP. Maybe this co-founder believes it's better to hedge their bets this way?

The article at least makes it look more like an issue in terms of American law rather than Taiwanese law/policy. I'm curious if a Taiwanese reader would view it as betrayal, or as just corporate fraud.

rmason 12 days ago | | |

I am certain they sell a lot of servers to China. I agree with you that there are citizens who want reunification with China. Despite China funding and promoting unification lavishly the numbers are falling. Last poll I could find from 2024 is that it is only 6.7%.

You are correct what they did is a violation of American law. I could not find evidence but my gut tells me he also violated Taiwanese law. Taiwan does not want to lose access to Nvidia chips as an untrusted partner.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_unification#:~:text=Th...

bdangubic 12 days ago | |

china pays well