US prosecutors charged three people connected to Super Micro Computer on 19 March with conspiring to illegally export Nvidia artificial intelligence chips to China, according to the Department of Justice. The individuals named are a co-founder of the San Jose-based server maker, a current employee, and an outside contractor.

The indictment alleges the trio routed approximately $2.5 billion in Nvidia GPUs to Chinese end-users in breach of US export licensing requirements. The chips in question are among the most capable AI accelerators subject to Washington's tightening technology controls.

Super Micro's shares fell more than 30% in the days following the charges, adding to a stock that had already been under pressure from accounting irregularities that forced a late filing of its annual results in 2024. The co-founder named in the charges, identified in multiple reports as Yih-Shyan Liaw, resigned from the company's board shortly after the indictment was unsealed.

The company said it would make governance changes After the scandal, though the specifics were not detailed in the source material.

The case is an uncomfortable moment for Nvidia, whose chief executive Jensen Huang said previously that there was no evidence the company's chips were being diverted to China. Nvidia is not accused of wrongdoing, but the scale of the alleged scheme will intensify scrutiny of how effectively export rules are enforced along the supply chain from chip designer to end customer.

For Super Micro, the charges compound a period of sustained reputational damage. The company narrowly avoided delisting from Nasdaq in 2024 after delays to its financial filings prompted the departure of its auditor, Ernst and Young. It has since filed outstanding results and retained its listing, but investor confidence remains fragile. The stock's latest decline erases a significant portion of the recovery it staged after resolving those accounting issues.