The US Department of Justice has arrested 38-year-old Greg Lui, the CEO of Earthmade Computer, for allegedly smuggling high-end computer servers containing Nvidia chips into China.

According to the FBI, Lui used false paperwork to mask the shipment of servers worth over $300 million, including Nvidia’s A100 and H100 GPUs, which can process large amounts of data and train large language models. The US fears these chips could pose national security risks if China gains access to them.

The smuggling scheme, which began in October 2023 and continued until August 2026, utilized freight-forwarding firms in South Asian countries like Malaysia and Singapore to illegally divert shipments into China. Emails and bank records revealed a 2024 email discussing an order for 70 servers with export-restricted GPUs that were falsely claimed as destined for Malaysia. A co-conspirator allegedly informed a Malaysian government official that all 27 servers were shipped to China.

Another shipment of 92 export-controlled servers was allegedly routed through Singapore to Malaysia, then Hong Kong, before finally reaching a Chinese firm in Hangzhou, described by The Wall Street Journal as China’s AI hub. A 2024 shipment of 100 Malaysian-bound servers, each containing Nvidia H100 GPUs worth over $22 million, was reportedly altered with fraudulent documentation from a fake buyer identifying its CEO as ‘Jackie Lui,’ a move that the FBI alleges was part of an ongoing export evasion scheme.