US arrests tech CEO accused of smuggling $300M in Nvidia chips into China

The US has arrested Greg Lui, 38, the CEO of Earthmade Computer, on accusations of smuggling high-end computer servers containing export-controlled Nvidia chips into China, the Department of Justice said in a press release on Thursday.

Prosecutors allege Lui used false paperwork to mask shipments of servers worth more than $300 million that he allegedly knew were ultimately destined for China. The FBI's indictment alleges he conspired with freight-forwarding firms in South Asian countries including Malaysia and Singapore to divert shipments, including Nvidia's A100 and H100 GPUs. The chips are not Nvidia's most advanced, but the US fears their capacity to process large amounts of data and train large language models could pose national security risks.

According to the DOJ, emails and bank records exposed a scheme running from October 2023 until August 2026. One cited 2024 email discussed an order for 70 servers with export-restricted GPUs fraudulently claimed as bound for Malaysia; after Lui submitted a purchase order for 27 of those servers for approximately $7,614,000, a co-conspirator allegedly told a Malaysian government official all 27 were shipped to China. A separate shipment of 92 export-controlled servers was allegedly routed through Singapore to Malaysia, then Hong Kong, and finally to a Chinese firm in Hangzhou, the FBI alleged.

In another 2024 shipment of 100 Malaysian-bound servers containing Nvidia H100 GPUs worth over $22 million, Lui allegedly submitted fraudulent documentation from a fake buyer identifying its CEO as "Jackie Lui." The FBI alleged he had purchased the identifying documents of an individual three years earlier and used that identity in the scheme. In 2024, his firm allegedly received more than $176 million from the scheme, with payment records from Bank of America and JP Morgan cited as evidence.

Arrested on three counts, Lui is accused of conspiring to violate the Export Control Reform Act and the Export Administration Regulations, plus federal smuggling and money laundering laws. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of either the conspiracy or money laundering counts; the smuggling charge carries a maximum of up to 10 years. The DOJ is seeking to seize all funds gained through the scheme.

The arrest follows an Nvidia senior manager in Taiwan being linked to a similar alleged smuggling scheme run by ex-Supermicro staff there. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang previously urged Supermicro to fix its compliance problem while claiming there was no evidence of smuggling. On Thursday, an Nvidia spokesperson told Bloomberg that "less than one half of one percent to Nvidia products" have allegedly been diverted to China, and said governments and media have found insignificant diversion compared with China's domestic compute.