Super Micro Computer announced that Yih-Shyan "Wally" Liaw, a co-founder and senior vice president of business development, has resigned from the company's board following his indictment in the U.S. for allegedly smuggling equipment containing Nvidia artificial intelligence chips into China [1]. The indictment, unsealed by a federal court on Thursday, also named sales manager Ruei-Tsan "Steven" Chang and contractor Ting-Wei "Willy" Sun as defendants. Super Micro stated that Liaw and Chang have been placed on administrative leave, and the company has ceased working with Sun [1].
The indictment details a scheme involving a Southeast Asian company acting as a middleman, which compiled fake paperwork and used a separate logistics firm to repackage servers to conceal their destination before shipping them to China. The defendants allegedly attempted to deceive Super Micro's compliance team by using "dummy" servers at storage facilities and pressured the team into approving shipments. They also employed "dummy" servers during a visit from a U.S. export control officer [1].
According to the indictment, these efforts resulted in approximately $2.5 billion in sales for Super Micro since 2024, with $510 million worth of servers sold between late April 2025 and mid-May 2025 routed through the Southeast Asian company to China. The plaintiff noted that Super Micro did not possess a U.S. Commerce Department license to export servers featuring Nvidia GPUs to China [1].
Super Micro shares dropped 33% in regular trading following news of the indictment, reflecting significant market concern over the legal and regulatory risks facing the company [1]. In response, Super Micro named DeAnna Luna, who joined from Intel in 2024, as its acting chief compliance officer. Luna has served as vice president of global trade and sanctions compliance [1].
Liaw had his initial court appearance on Thursday in the Northern District of California, with a bond hearing scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. Sun's initial hearing was held on Friday, and his detention hearing is set for Monday afternoon [1].
CONCLUSION
The indictment and subsequent board resignation of Super Micro's co-founder have triggered a sharp 33% decline in the company's shares, underscoring investor concerns about regulatory compliance and potential legal repercussions. The appointment of a new acting chief compliance officer signals Super Micro's efforts to address these issues, but the market remains highly sensitive to developments in the case.