Nvidia worker among 9 charged in Taiwan chip smuggling case

TAIPEI — Nine people in Taiwan, including a Nvidia worker, were charged on Monday over the illegal export of artificial intelligence servers to China, Taiwanese prosecutors said. The indictments follow an investigation into the shipment of "high-end" AI servers made by Nasdaq-listed Super Micro Computer and containing advanced Nvidia chips to China in violation of U.S. export controls. Eight of the nine defendants were charged with breach of trust and forging documents to smuggle 74 servers containing Nvidia chips to China, Keelung District Prosecutors Office said in a statement. Of those servers, 50 were transhipped through Indonesia, eight were sent via Japan and the rest were exported directly to China. An additional 56 servers were seized at Taiwan's border, the statement said. Three of the defendants have been charged with embezzlement. The United States restricts exports to China of the most cutting-edge silicon chips used to power artificial intelligence systems, designed by industry leader Nvidia. But it is not a criminal offence in Taiwan — a situation lawmakers and experts sa