BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 10. The United States and China are competing for leadership in artificial intelligence (AI), with both countries investing billions of dollars in a technology considered critical to economic growth, national security and military capabilities.
In March, US prosecutors charged Ting-Wei “Willy” Sun and two other individuals associated with Super Micro Computer, including company co-founder Yih-Shyan “Wally” Liaw, with conspiring to divert approximately $2.5 billion worth of US AI technology to China in violation of export laws.
According to the indictment, the alleged scheme began around October 2023, when Sun and others allegedly conspired to export servers from a US manufacturer to China without the required licences.
Super Micro, a California-based company, previously stated that it was not named as a defendant in the indictment and that the case had not affected its business operations. The company terminated Sun and ended its ties with the other defendants earlier this year.
Sun’s lawyer declined to comment on his guilty plea. Liaw, who co-founded Super Micro in 1993 and joined its board in 2023, and Ruei-Tsang “Steven” Chang, a former sales manager at the company’s Taiwan office, were also indicted. Lawyers for Liaw and Chang did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The indictment described Sun as a broker and “fixer” who allegedly facilitated orders and helped conceal the scheme. It further alleged that he arranged dummy servers in December 2025 and made false statements to a US Department of Commerce officer during an inspection of servers that had already been diverted to China.
Washington has imposed restrictions on exports of advanced AI chips to China, citing national security concerns. According to the indictment, Nvidia’s B200, H100 and H200 graphics processing units, along with servers containing those chips, were subject to the restrictions.
