Super Micro’s Super Smugglers

Super Micro’s Super Smugglers

From The Wire China Podcast by The Wire China

April 24, 2026 · 22 min

About this episode

The episode discusses a recent AI chip smuggling ring involving Super Micro and NVIDIA chips sold to Chinese buyers, highlighting the challenges in stopping such operations.

Another day, another AI chip smuggling ring has been busted by the United States government. But this one is different: for the first time, executives from U.S. server manufacturer Super Micro have been charged with selling NVIDIA chips to Chinese buyers — a violation of U.S. export controls. Reporter Eliot Chen returns to the podcast with editor Andrew Peaple to discuss how the operation worked, and why smuggling chips to China is seemingly so hard to stop. Also, we’ll have a clip from our...

People in this episode

Host: Andrew Peaple

Guest: Eliot Chen

Topics covered

  • AI chip smuggling
  • U.S. export controls
  • Super Micro
  • NVIDIA chips
  • China

Keywords

  • AI chips
  • smuggling
  • Super Micro
  • NVIDIA
  • export controls
  • China
  • U.S. government

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Super Micro, NVIDIA

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