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International Business Times
International Business Times
Business
IBT Newsroom

Supermicro Stock Crashes 33% After Co-Founder Arrested in $2.5 Billion Nvidia Chip Smuggling Scheme Tied to China

Super Micro Computer's San Jose, California headquarters. Shares of the server maker collapsed 33% Friday after federal prosecutors arrested co-founder Wally Liaw on charges of smuggling Nvidia AI chips to China. (Credit: By SMCI - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=128284003)

Shares of Super Micro Computer Inc. (Nasdaq: SMCI) suffered one of the most dramatic single-day collapses in its history on Friday, plummeting 33% after federal prosecutors arrested the company's co-founder on charges that he secretly funneled billions of dollars' worth of Nvidia-powered AI servers to China — in direct violation of U.S. export control laws designed to protect national security.

Federal agents arrested Yih-Shyan "Wally" Liaw, 71, a prominent Silicon Valley executive who co-founded Supermicro in 1993 and is described as a close confidante of CEO and chairman Charles Liang. The arrest sent the stock tumbling more than 12% in after-hours trading on Thursday before the full weight of the indictment crushed shares in Friday's regular session.

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