Super Micro shares fall 10.5% amid reports of three Justice Department investigations
Key Facts
Super Micro shares fell 10.5% on November 12, 2026, after Semafor reported that the U.S. Justice Department is conducting multiple investigations that may involve Nvidia, according to Investing.com. The report cited two officials and said three separate inquiries concern Nvidia, Megaspeed and Super Micro. The news revived scrutiny of companies in the AI server and chip supply chain. The report said the cases are separate, an important distinction in understanding the scope of each inquiry. It made no mention of charges being filed in any of the cases.
One investigation focuses on Nvidia from an antitrust perspective, while the other two concern Megaspeed and Super Micro, with a focus on Alice Huang’s alleged ties to them, according to Semafor. The report said there was no indication prosecutors currently intend to bring criminal charges against Nvidia or its CEO, Jensen Huang. It also did not establish that Nvidia itself was involved in the allegations related to Alice Huang. Nvidia’s mention in the antitrust investigation therefore remains separate from the two cases linked to Huang. The report said the “investigations are separate,” emphasizing that suspicion in one case does not automatically carry over to another.
Super Micro’s decline came on a day of greater pressure on Nvidia shares; Nvidia fell 7.8% in premarket trading on November 12, according to Reuters. The Associated Press reported that Nvidia shares fell more than 7% to $160.85 before the opening bell, amid questions about whether Huang would remain in his position. Reuters said Nvidia had lost about $300 billion in market value since its board announced on Sunday that it had opened an investigation into Huang’s relationship with Alice Huang. These moves place the investigation reports in the context of broader volatility in the company’s shares, as legal and corporate-governance news converged in that day’s trading. Nvidia shares had fallen 4.3% on November 9 after the company opened an investigation into reports that Huang was targeted in a foreign intelligence operation, according to the Associated Press.
On the Super Micro front, the company had previously announced on November 3 preliminary, unaudited results for the first quarter of its fiscal 2027, ended September 30, 2026. Net sales were $19.9 billion, compared with $11.1 billion in fiscal 2026’s fourth quarter and $5 billion in the first quarter of the previous fiscal year. CEO Charles Liang said the company delivered record quarterly revenue of $19.9 billion. But reported gross margin was 12.7%, down from 17.5% in the previous quarter, though still above 9.3% a year earlier. The company cautioned that the published figures are preliminary and unaudited and may differ from the final results.
In another part of the backdrop to scrutiny involving the company, U.S. prosecutors in March accused three people linked to Super Micro of helping smuggle U.S. AI technology to China. Reuters said the company’s shares fell 27% that day. On November 9, China’s foreign ministry described espionage allegations related to the Huang case as a “smear campaign against Beijing,” according to the Associated Press. These events concern different cases from the three investigations Semafor reported on November 12. That background adds context of prior scrutiny of chip and server companies, without establishing a connection between the cases.
Attention is turning to Super Micro’s operating outlook for the second quarter of fiscal 2027, with the company saying it expects net sales of between $19.5 billion and $21.5 billion. It also forecast sales of between $72 billion and $82 billion for fiscal 2027. The outlook follows the increase in sales recorded in the first quarter, while gross margin was below the prior quarter’s level. Final first-quarter results may differ from the preliminary figures published by the company. The report gave no later date for the outcome of the investigations or for any action by the Justice Department.