Qingyun’s involvement in an Nvidia AI smuggling case explodes—forces the general manager to resign to cut ties, after swallowing three consecutive limit-downs; it locks a limit-up in this very moment

The NVIDIA AI chip smuggling case involving China triggered a large-scale search by the Keelung District Prosecutors Office. Qingyun (5386) saw its stock price collapse from NT$524 to NT$382.5 within 3 days, with a cumulative decline of nearly 30%. The company quickly cut ties by having its general manager, Lyu Yangkai, resign, appointing new CEO Qiu Chenzhen in his place.
(Background recap: Prosecutors conducted a surprise raid on Supermicro’s Taiwan office; data center operator is Chief Telecom, and entities including the distributor Qingyun Technology, among 12 locations in total, were targeted, expanding the investigation into the NVIDIA AI server smuggling case to China.)
(Additional background: Taiwanese suspects are accused of smuggling Nvidia AI chips into China! Bloomberg: Using “Japan as a springboard” to secretly ship Supermicro high-end servers)

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• How did the smuggling case break out?
• Supermicro: 4 employees, 2 detained, 2 released on bail
• Investigation not yet complete; supply-chain concerns remain unresolved

After three consecutive days of limit-down, it was followed by a limit-up. Earlier this week, Supermicro’s distributor Qingyun (5386) was pulled into a cross-border chip smuggling investigation and was suspected of facilitating the illegal export of NVIDIA’s (NVIDIA) GB300 high-end AI server chips to China. General Manager Lyu Yangkai was detained on remand and barred from meeting others.

Right after yesterday’s developments, the company immediately issued a material announcement to sever ties, swiftly replacing the general manager. Today, it finally managed to pull back the sell pressure that had been flooding in.

How did the smuggling case break out?

The origin of the incident was a smuggling case being investigated by the Keelung District Prosecutors Office: It was rumored that NVIDIA GB300 high-end AI server chips were routed to China, Hong Kong, and Macau through forged programs. On 6/29, the prosecutors launched a second wave of searches, targeting Supermicro’s distributor Qingyun (5386), data center operator Chief Telecom (6561), and Supermicro’s Taiwan branch.

The stock price suffered a chain reaction of heavy losses, falling from NT$524 at the close on 6/29 to NT$382.5 on 7/2. Over 3 trading days, the cumulative decline was about 27%, and the stock was also listed by the Taipei Exchange as a stock to be observed. At one point, market rumors spread that concerns about illegal shipping to China could seriously impact the company’s core operations at the root.

On the evening of 7/2, Qingyun directly cut ties: Lyu Yangkai has stepped down as general manager. The company’s position was that this matter was his personal conduct; he is no longer employed by the company, and the vacancy would be filled starting immediately by Chairman’s Special Assistant Qiu Chenzhen. As for the operational aspect that the outside world worries most about, Qingyun said everything is operating as usual, and neither its finances nor business has been subject to any substantial impact. The company said it would fully cooperate with judicial authorities and again denied that the company was involved in any sale and purchase of server chips.

Supermicro: 4 employees, 2 detained, 2 released on bail

Another named party, Supermicro, also moved quickly to draw a clear line.

Chief Revenue Officer Matt Thauberger said that this case was not one of the main targets the prosecutors had focused on. Over the past few months, the company had proactively provided relevant information to Taiwan’s competent authorities, and the company’s office in Taiwan had not been searched. The ones actually called in for interrogation by investigators were 4 Taiwanese employees: 2 have been detained, and the other 2 were handled by being released on bail. Regarding these 4 people, the company made an administrative suspension decision immediately and would wait for the investigation results before deciding on next steps.

Matt Thauberger also added a statement of stance, emphasizing “zero tolerance” for any conduct that violates the law or contravenes the company’s rules. At the same time, he gave assurances to external customers that this case would not affect the company’s product supply and services. The company’s bet on the direction of the AI, cloud, and enterprise infrastructure markets would not be shaken as a result.

The smuggling method initially grasped by investigators is the falsification of KYC (Know Your Customer) verification documents required by the U.S. Department of Commerce. By falsely declaring the final destination or model number, it would circumvent U.S. export controls on servers equipped with NVIDIA high-end chip servers. The Keelung District Prosecutors Office had seized 50 AI servers equipped with NVIDIA GB300 chips on 5/20, with an estimated value of about NT$700 million. In addition, investigators also seized cash totaling more than NT$9 million. These servers were the key pieces of physical evidence in this case that were suspected of being shipped to China.

Investigation not yet complete; supply-chain concerns remain unresolved

After the stock price reversed from consecutive limit-downs to a limit-up, it reflected the market’s positive interpretation of a “clean break and new leadership.” Incoming bargain-hunting buy orders absorbed the accumulated panic in one go.

But the Keelung District Prosecutors Office’s investigation is still ongoing. And as the legal responsibility of Lyu Yangkai himself has not yet been finalized by a final ruling, whether this is purely personal conduct or whether it involves a larger-scale loophole in export controls has not been answered yet.