New US Investigation Into Alice Huang Expands Scrutiny of Super Micro Servers
Key Facts
US authorities are examining whether parties linked to Alice Huang took part in smuggling Super Micro products to China, in a new investigation led by the Manhattan US attorney’s office, Investing.com reported, citing Bloomberg. The report said on November 12, 2026, that the scrutiny had not previously been disclosed, while the company’s shares fell 12% after it was published. The connection between the new investigation and existing semiconductor-smuggling cases in the United States or Asia remains unclear. It is also unclear whether the investigation is linked to any previous chip-smuggling cases, Bloomberg reported. The developments put export routes for AI servers and compliance with trade restrictions under renewed scrutiny.
Investing.com said Super Micro has not been named as a defendant in the new investigation and that the company said it is cooperating. It reported that co-founder Wally Liaw, who has pleaded not guilty, no longer works at the company. The investigation differs from the US case announced by prosecutors in March against three people, according to the US Department of Justice. In that case, prosecutors said a company they identified as “Company 1” bought about $2.5 billion in servers from a US manufacturer between 2024 and 2025. They added that at least about $510 million of those servers was diverted to China between late April and mid-May 2025. These allegations do not establish that Huang’s case is the same case or that the two figures relate to the new investigation.
In the case announced by the Justice Department, prosecutors said the alleged conspirators set up thousands of fake, nonworking servers to deceive the manufacturer’s compliance team during inspections. The department presented this as part of the charges in the case announced against three people, not as an established description of the investigation involving Huang. The new US investigation comes as Singapore continues a separate probe into Megaspeed and people linked to it. Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs said police and customs began investigating in February 2025 declarations suspected of being inaccurate about server purchases, along with other potential violations. One strand of the investigation examined whether servers routed through Singapore to Malaysia had been redirected to another destination contrary to the declarations.
Singaporean authorities said their investigation examined whether servers bought by companies and then exported through Singapore to Malaysia were redirected to another destination, despite the declarations made in Singapore. In February 2026, police, in consultation with the attorney general’s office, concluded there was insufficient evidence to establish that Huang had committed offenses involving potentially inaccurate declarations. Authorities issued her a stern warning and barred her from re-entering Singapore. But the investigation into Megaspeed and six other people remained ongoing as of November 12, 2026, the Ministry of Home Affairs said. Singapore said it brought charges against four people and four companies in court between February 2025 and July 2026 in cases involving fraud through false statements related to server purchases. The offenses cited carry prison sentences of up to 20 years each, according to the ministry.
On the company’s cooperation with Singapore, the Ministry of Home Affairs said Super Micro provided limited cooperation. It added that police and the attorney general’s office raised the matter of cooperation with US authorities at a meeting held on July 7, 2025, and that police repeated requests for assistance to the Justice Department and the FBI from September 2025. Despite those repeated requests, Singapore received only limited information or assistance, the ministry said. That account differs from the company’s statement on July 1, 2026, in which it affirmed its cooperation with Taiwanese authorities. In that statement, the company said four of its employees in Taiwan were detained for questioning on June 29 in connection with an investigation into sales of products to a Taiwanese technology company; by July 1, two remained in custody awaiting a hearing, while the other two had been released on bail.
In the market, Super Micro shares closed at $30.43 on November 11, compared with $27.79 in the previous session, according to EL7 data; Investing.com reported a 12% drop on November 12 after the report. Nvidia shares closed at $173.73 on November 11, according to the same data. Investing.com said Nvidia shares remained down about 5% on November 12 after the announcement of Jensen Huang’s departure, as investors assessed the potential implications for the company and its leadership. Separately, Reuters reported in May that an Nvidia spokesperson said the company expects its partners to comply strictly with compliance rules and would continue working with governments to enforce them. Reuters also reported Alibaba’s denial of business ties with Super Micro, OBON or the intermediaries named in an indictment, and its statement that its data centers had never used restricted Nvidia chips.