Earthmade CEO Charged in $300M Nvidia Server Smuggling Case

Earthmade CEO Greg Lui was charged with smuggling $300M in Nvidia AI servers to China via Malaysia and Singapore.

Greg Lui, also known as Yiu Kong Lui, the 38-year-old owner of Earthmade Computer Inc. in the City of Industry, was arrested and charged in a three-count federal indictment unsealed this week. Prosecutors allege that between 2023 and 2024 he and co-conspirators funneled more than $300 million worth of export-controlled AI servers to China, selling high-end machines containing U.S.-manufactured Nvidia chips to buyers including the Chinese government, according to the Los Angeles Times. He is charged with conspiracy to violate the Export Control Reform Act and Export Administration Regulations, outbound smuggling, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

This is not a gray-market reseller case but, per federal charging documents, a founder allegedly running the diversion through his own company. The Los Angeles Times reports Earthmade allegedly received more than $176 million from two Malaysia-based shipment companies in 2024 as part of the scheme, and that Lui's shipments of Nvidia A100 and H100 chips were powerful enough to train large language models. For startup readers, it is a stark example of how a company built to sell AI hardware can be repurposed into an export-evasion operation, with the founder personally exposed to decades in federal prison.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the indictment cites bank records and emails, including a purchase order to a U.S. manufacturer for 27 servers with Nvidia H100 chips for about $7.6 million, shipped from the Los Angeles area to Kuala Lumpur — after which a co-conspirator allegedly emailed a Malaysian government official saying all 27 were shipped to China. Ars Technica reports additional detail: a 92-server shipment allegedly routed through Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong to a Chinese firm in Hangzhou, and a 2024 shipment of 100 H100 servers worth over $22 million supported by a fake buyer whose CEO was identified as "Jackie Lui" — an identity the FBI says Lui had purchased documents for years earlier.

What is consistent across reports is the charge set — export-control conspiracy, outbound smuggling and money laundering — and the Justice Department's stated intent. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in a Justice Department news release, "We will aggressively prosecute those who put our national security at risk for profit," and prosecutors want to seize all funds gained through the scheme, per Ars Technica.

The case lands amid a wave of similar prosecutions. Nvidia downplayed diversion on Thursday, with a spokesperson telling Bloomberg that "less than one half of one percent to Nvidia products" have allegedly been diverted to China, according to Ars Technica, which also reports Bloomberg's investigation into Nvidia's compliance "blind spots" and questions about how the company failed to catch red flags.

The FBI, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security Office of Export Enforcement, and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service are jointly investigating the case, per Tom's Hardware, and a federal grand jury returned the indictment on September 29, 2026, per Gadget Review. Ars Technica reports U.S. officials want Nvidia to voluntarily tighten its buyer-screening protocols and flag suspicious shipments, especially at facilities in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. For hardware startups and distributors across Southeast Asia, the enforcement net is extending along the paperwork chain — companies that certify end users or destinations now face the same scrutiny as those moving the equipment, as Gadget Review observes.