The Greg Lui $300M AI server smuggling case is the latest escalation in America's crackdown on advanced chip exports to China. On October 1, 2026, federal agents arrested a 38-year-old San Gabriel, California, tech company owner on a three-count federal indictment accusing him of smuggling more than $300 million worth of export-controlled high-end computer servers — packed with U.S.-made AI GPUs — to China through a trail of false paperwork and third-country transshipments.
Who is Greg Lui and what is he accused of?
Greg Lui, 38, also known as "Yiu Kong Lui," of San Gabriel, owns Earthmade Computer Inc., a City of Industry-based technology company. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, a federal grand jury returned the indictment on September 29, 2026, and Lui was arrested on October 1. He is charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the Export Control Reform Act and the Export Administration Regulations, one count of outbound smuggling, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The indictment alleges that from 2023 to 2024, Lui and co-conspirators used Earthmade to buy export-controlled servers — including systems with NVIDIA A100 and H100 GPUs used for "Super Intelligence" computing — and ship them to China without the required Commerce Department licenses.
How the alleged $300M AI chip smuggling scheme worked
Prosecutors say the operation ran on deception at every step. Lui allegedly supplied false documentation to U.S.-based manufacturers, misrepresenting that the servers were headed to permissible end users and destinations. The indictment details staged dummy servers allegedly used to mislead inspectors, plus convoluted transshipment schemes through freight-forwarding companies that moved the hardware to Malaysia and Singapore — where no such license is required — before it was re-exported to China.
One example cited by prosecutors: in January 2024, Lui submitted a purchase order for 27 servers with export-restricted GPUs for about $7.6 million, which shipped from Los Angeles to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Two months later, a co-conspirator emailed a Malaysian government official that those 27 servers had in fact been transshipped to a China-based buyer. Between January and October 2024 alone, Earthmade received more than $176 million from two Malaysia-based shipment companies, the DOJ says.
What the DOJ and FBI are saying
"This defendant allegedly used false paperwork and shipments through third countries to smuggle more than $300 million in export-controlled computer servers to China. We will aggressively prosecute those who put our national security at risk for profit."
— Bill Essayli, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California
Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said the indictment details "staged dummy servers to mislead inspectors" and schemes to "obfuscate the true destination of restricted SI technology — China," adding: "These chips are the product of American ingenuity." The FBI's Counterintelligence and Espionage Division said its investigation found Lui allegedly sold the Chinese government "hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of American Super Intelligence technology."
What happens next
If convicted on all counts, Lui would face a statutory maximum of 20 years in federal prison on the export-control conspiracy count, 10 years on the smuggling count, and 20 years on the money-laundering conspiracy count. The case is being prosecuted by the DOJ's National Security Division with investigators from the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, and the FBI. NVIDIA is not accused of any wrongdoing — the case concerns what happened to servers containing its chips after they were sold. An indictment is only an allegation, and Lui is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
Watch: the Greg Lui indictment explained
Watch the video explainer on the Greg Lui DOJ charges, which walks through the three charges, the alleged Malaysia–Singapore transshipment route, and why these AI chips are export-restricted.
Sources
- DOJ: San Gabriel man arrested on federal charges alleging $300M smuggling to China
- DOJ Office of Public Affairs: California man arrested for smuggling $300M in servers
- Startup Fortune: California tech CEO charged in $300M Nvidia chip smuggling scheme
- Beinsure: Greg Lui DOJ charges allege $300M Nvidia AI server smuggling