Taiwan Arrests Nvidia Employee Over Alleged Chip Smuggling to China

Taiwanese police arrested an Nvidia employee and searched the company's offices in the country as part of an investigation into the suspected smuggling of the company's chips to China, in violation of the ban imposed by the US government, Bloomberg reported this evening (Tuesday). This is apparently the first case in which legal action has been taken against an Nvidia employee, after authorities in the country have already arrested employees of the server marketing and data center operator Super Micro Computer since May. Three employees at that company were charged with forging documents in order to export Nvidia chips to China.

Sources with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg that investigators in Taiwan searched the employee's home and his workstation at Nvidia's headquarters in Taipei on July 24. Subsequently, prosecutors asked the court to allow them to arrest the employee on charges of forgery and breach of trust. The court granted the request.

The issue of smuggling Nvidia chips to China returned to the headlines last week after the White House claimed that the Chinese company Moonshot used prohibited Nvidia chips to develop its advanced AI model, Kimi K3, which threatens the dominance of models from American companies. The website The Information reported today that the company is trying to gain access to additional Nvidia chips for the development of the next generation of its model, Kimi K4.