Silicon Valley tech company Super Micro was supposed to be riding high: After flying under the radar for a quarter of a century, the company had ridden the coattails of the recent generative AI boom. The $20 billion manufacturer builds some of the most important hardware used to power the top artificial intelligence models–that is, high-performance servers that house the leading AI chips, including Nvidia’s.
Over the past five years, as the AI boom picked up steam before exploding post-ChatGPT, Super Micro’s shares soared over 3,000% and its reported revenue doubled to $7.12 billion, to earn it a glitzy debut on the Fortune 500. But accounting issues have continued to haunt the company: It settled with the Securities & Exchange Commission in August 2020 over two years' worth of alleged accounting violations, and then in 2024 short-seller Hindenburg Research claimed Super Micro continued to engage in questionable accounting practices.
