A San Gabriel Valley technology company owner was arrested Thursday following charges that he illegally exported over $300 million in high-end computer hardware to China, according to a federal indictment filed this week. Greg Lui, owner of Earthmade Computer Inc. based in City of Industry, is accused of smuggling advanced servers equipped with U.S.-manufactured Nvidia chips to the Chinese government, while misrepresenting the shipments as destined for customers in Malaysia and Singapore.
The Commerce Department requires export licenses for shipments of such sophisticated technology to China, but not for deliveries to Malaysia or Singapore. Prosecutors allege that Lui and his co-conspirators exploited this regulatory gap by falsifying documentation to chip manufacturers, indicating that the hardware would be sent to these countries. Instead, the servers were allegedly rerouted onward to China using freight-forwarding companies.
The indictment, filed Tuesday in the Central District of California, describes a scheme in which Lui ordered 27 servers containing Nvidia H100 chips—valued at approximately $7.6 million—from a U.S. manufacturer. Shipping documents listed Kuala Lumpur as the destination, but evidence, including emails and bank records, reportedly show that the servers were actually transported to China. One email cited in the indictment allegedly involved a co-conspirator notifying a Malaysian government official that the entire shipment had been redirected to China.
Prosecutors also noted that Earthmade received more than $176 million in payments during 2024 from two Malaysia-based shipping companies connected to the operation. The chips involved in the alleged exports include the Nvidia A100 and H100 models. While these are no longer the company’s latest products, both remain powerful enough for artificial intelligence applications. The H100 chip, introduced in 2022, is specifically designed to support large language models capable of generating text, code, images, video, and audio.
Lui faces charges including conspiracy to violate export controls, outbound smuggling, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. An attorney for Lui has not been identified, and officials have not commented further. Efforts to contact him for comment were unsuccessful.
The case comes amid ongoing debate over U.S. technology exports to China. Some lawmakers have pushed for stricter controls on AI-related chips and technologies, citing national security concerns. However, companies like Nvidia and AMD have lobbied against tighter restrictions, arguing that such measures could harm economic competition and innovation.
Earlier this week, an executive order signed by President Trump redefined “artificial intelligence” as “super intelligence” as part of a broader effort to address the evolving technology landscape. This follows Trump’s decision last year to relax certain export controls on advanced chips bound for China despite mounting calls for greater regulation.
This indictment echoes a similar 2025 case in which federal authorities charged two Chinese nationals residing in Southern California with exporting tens of millions of dollars’ worth of AI microchips to China without authorization. Federal prosecutors have emphasized the need to prevent U.S.-developed advanced technologies from enhancing the military capabilities of rival nations.