{"text":[[{"start":7.48,"text":"An Nvidia employee has been charged in Taiwan with smuggling advanced AI chips into China in the first known indictment of a worker at the US chipmaker over alleged illegal exports."}],[{"start":18.86,"text":"Taiwan’s Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office charged nine people, including employees of server maker Super Micro Computer, on Monday with illegally selling high-end AI servers to Chinese customers."}],[{"start":31.56,"text":"Prosecutors accused the defendants of colluding in pursuit of huge profits and “seriously damaging Taiwan’s international image”. Many of Nvidia’s chips and servers are made in Taiwan."}],[{"start":43.24,"text":"They described a Taiwan-based senior manager at Nvidia surnamed Zhang as the “central figure” in a scheme involving 130 of the chipmaker’s flagship B300 servers."}],[{"start":54.72,"text":"The B300 is a popular server for training AI models and contains Nvidia’s advanced chips. The servers are subject to US export controls as Washington tries to constrain China’s ability to develop cutting-edge AI."}],[{"start":68,"text":"Washington’s restrictions have created a lucrative black market under which prices can double or triple."}],[{"start":74.24,"text":"Prosecutors said Zhang, two senior Super Micro salespeople, a Taiwanese distributor and other intermediaries colluded to circumvent customer checks by both Nvidia and Super Micro, which is one of several companies that package Nvidia’s AI chips into servers."}],[{"start":89.82,"text":"They alleged that defendants falsely claimed the servers would be used in a data centre in Taiwan, even though its electricity supply and network bandwidth were insufficient to operate them."}],[{"start":99.56,"text":"Of the 130 servers, 74 were ultimately shipped to Chinese customers, according to prosecutors, either directly from Taiwan or routed through Indonesia or Japan. The remaining 56 were stopped by Taiwan customs officials."}],[{"start":114.66,"text":"Zhang allegedly helped secure an allocation of servers and participated in an inspection of the data centre where they would purportedly be used."}],[{"start":123.24,"text":"Prosecutors said he deliberately concealed that the data-centre buyer lacked sufficient financial resources and that the funds used to purchase the servers actually came from a Chinese company."}],[{"start":133.44,"text":"They have requested the statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison for Zhang and three other defendants, while the other five were recommended for shorter terms."}],[{"start":143.36,"text":"An Nvidia spokesperson said: “Our employees have every incentive to work diligently with customers to ensure compliance with all applicable laws. We will work with the Taiwan authorities to help them resolve the allegations as quickly as possible.”"}],[{"start":156.4,"text":"Super Micro said its “co-operation with Taiwanese authorities led to the arrests of the indicted individuals” and that it was “not a target of their investigation and has not been accused of any wrongdoing”."}],[{"start":168.08,"text":"Additional reporting by Michael Acton in San Francisco"}],[{"start":176.48,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1787657621_8499.mp3"}