AIBRIEF
The board led probe cleared CEO Charles Liang and current senior management, but SEC, Southern District of New York grand jury, and Taiwan inquiries remain open.
AI-server maker Supermicro has fired staff in sales, technical support, and business development after a board-led investigation into the alleged $2.5 billion smuggling of Nvidia-equipped servers to China. The probe was led by lead independent director Scott Angel and audit chair Tally Liu.
The investigation cleared CEO Charles Liang and current senior management of knowledge of the scheme.
The alleged scheme involved roughly $2.5 billion in Supermicro servers sold since 2024, with $510 million concentrated between late April and mid-May 2025, routed through Southeast Asian shell companies into China. Cofounder and board member Yih-Shyan "Wally" Liaw was indicted in March 2026 along with two others; Liaw has pleaded not guilty and is free on a $5 million bond. Trial has been postponed from November 2026 to March 2027 after a June SDNY grand jury subpoena was revealed.
A 2024 internal probe by then-board member Susie Giordano also concluded no export-control violations, a finding now under scrutiny because Liaw's alleged scheme was running concurrently. Three government inquiries remain open: an SEC subpoena for customer documents, the SDNY grand jury subpoena, and a parallel Taiwan probe that detained four Supermicro employees in July. Bernstein analyst Mark Newman told Fortune the announcement amounted to "nothing to see here."