Taiwan detains Nvidia employee in chip smuggling probe

Taiwanese prosecutors have detained an Nvidia employee as part of an expanding investigation into the alleged smuggling of AI servers equipped with restricted Nvidia chips to China, in violation of U.S. export controls. The suspect, surnamed Chang, was detained after searches of his home and workplace on July 24, and investigators also searched his desk at Nvidia's Taipei office. This marks the third round of raids in the probe, which began in May 2026 and has now resulted in seven people being held, including employees of Supermicro and Albatron Technology. The defendants are accused of falsifying documents to export around 50 Super Micro servers to China, some via Japan. Separately, the U.S. Department of Justice has charged Super Micro co-founder Yih-Shyan Liaw and two others with smuggling $2.5 billion worth of Nvidia-equipped servers to China. Taiwan prosecutors have not yet determined if the cases are connected.