US Charges Earthmade Owner With $300M Nvidia Chip Smuggling to China

Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles have charged Greg Lui, 38, the owner of City of Industry-based Earthmade Computer Inc., with smuggling about $300 million of export-controlled Nvidia AI servers to China between 2023 and 2024, Bloomberg reported. The indictment alleges Lui bought high-end servers from US manufacturers while filing false paperwork that named buyers in countries where no export license is required.

The servers were routed first to Singapore and Malaysia, both outside the Commerce Department's licensing regime for the top Nvidia parts, and then forwarded to customers in China. One purchase order cited by prosecutors covered 27 servers containing Nvidia H100 GPUs for roughly $7.6 million. Between January 2024 and October 2024, Courthouse News reported, Earthmade received more than $176 million from two Malaysia-based shipment companies as part of the scheme.

"This defendant allegedly used false paperwork and shipments through third countries to smuggle more than US$300 million in export-controlled computer servers to China," said First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli in Los Angeles. "We will aggressively prosecute those who put our national security at risk for profit."

Lui faces one count each of conspiracy to violate US export controls, outbound smuggling, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He could face more than 20 years in prison if convicted on all three. The case is one of 343 China-AI items in our tracker over the last 90 days.