A California business owner has been arrested and charged with allegedly orchestrating a scheme to smuggle approximately $300 million worth of advanced Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) and related server equipment to China, in violation of U.S. export controls. The U.S. government has prioritized restricting the sale of high-end AI hardware to China, citing national security concerns and the potential for such technology to accelerate China's development of advanced artificial intelligence.
Greg Lui, 38, is accused of using his company, Earthmade Computer Inc., to procure high-powered Nvidia components and servers within the United States. These included A100, H100, PNY GeForce RTX 4090, and GeForce RTX 5090 GPUs. Prosecutors allege that Lui then shipped these products to Malaysia and Singapore, countries that do not require export licenses from the U.S. Commerce Department, before they were forwarded to China. This method was allegedly designed to circumvent U.S. regulations that restrict the direct export of such economically sensitive equipment to China.
The alleged scheme reportedly began around October 2023 and continued until at least August 12, 2026. Court documents indicate that Lui received over $176 million in payments from two Malaysian transshipment companies, acting as a broker to connect them with U.S. suppliers of Nvidia hardware. The total value of the brokered sales is estimated at nearly $300 million.
Prosecutors claim Lui was fully aware of the legal restrictions on shipping advanced Nvidia chips to China without proper licenses. Evidence cited in court documents includes records tying the export of 92 servers from San Francisco International Airport to Kuala Lumpur, ordered by Earthmade. These documents also reportedly list a Chinese customer as the consignee for the onward shipment from Malaysia to Hong Kong.
Further allegations include Lui instructing a U.S. front company to fraudulently list a shipment's recipient as Jackie Lui, purportedly the CEO of "Topmost," a California-registered company. Topmost was allegedly registered by the CTO of one of the Malaysian transshipment businesses involved. Additionally, prosecutors claim that in 2021, Lui illegally acquired identity documents that were subsequently used in the scheme.
Lui faces one count each of violations related to the Export Control Reform Act and the Export Administration Regulations, outbound smuggling, and money laundering. These charges collectively carry a maximum potential prison sentence of 50 years.
Authorities emphasized the importance of controlling the export of advanced AI technology to safeguard U.S. national security and economic interests. The FBI's Counterintelligence and Espionage Division stated that Lui allegedly sold hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of American "Super Intelligence technology" to the Chinese government, in clear violation of U.S. export control laws.
