Trouble keeps finding Supermicro as strange server shipments attract police attention in Taiwan and Singapore

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Alleged illicit GPU movements lead to seizure of $42 million house

The strife seldom stops at Supermicro, which this week has been forced to deny a raid on its office, and appears to have fallen victim to fraudsters in Singapore.

The server-maker yesterday published a business update in which Chief Revenue Officer Matt Thauberge assured customers that police in Taiwan did not raid the company this week – the company is just helping local authorities after they detained four of its workers for questioning. Thauberge said Supermicro “coordinated with authorities to provide access to those employees’ desks and electronic devices” to assist with a matter the company previously said is related to “illicit diversion of our highly sought-after systems into the restricted China market.”

Supermicro said the investigation “highlights the challenges that can arise when products are resold through multiple downstream parties beyond direct manufacturer control,” and said it vetted the original purchaser thoroughly.

Servers are not in short supply in China, where local heroes like Lenovo, Inspur, and Huawei can crank out plenty of x86 boxes. Chinese buyers, however, are not always able to buy some Nvidia GPUs due to US sanctions and, more recently, Chinese authorities deciding not to authorize imports after sanctions lifted. It’s thought the servers allegedly sent to China may have had Nvidia kit inside. That’s not a crime, but the paperwork arranging the deal may have been improper.

Supermicro is also tangled up in a Singapore case that started in early 2025 with the arrest of three men accused of fraudulently acquiring servers.

Singapore’s Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam linked the matter to export of servers containing Nvidia parts to Malaysia but said he wasn’t sure if that was the final destination for the boxes.

In a statement published on Wednesday, the island nation’s law enforcement agency detailed a conspiracy involving three men who were officers of three companies collectively known as “Asperia Group.” The three men allegedly talked with Dell, Supermicro, and ASUS about purchasing servers and claimed that Asperia Group would be the end-user of the servers.

One of the accused is also alleged to have negotiated to buy servers from Supermicro for a company he controlled called Luxuriate Your Life, which he said would lease them to third parties.

Singaporean authorities allege the men were all fraudsters because the servers they bought were not used by Asperia Group or leased by Luxuriate Your Life.

A common theory is that the Asperia and Luxuriate Your Life intended to either move the servers out of Singapore and rent them to Chinese users, or just ship them to China. The alleged conspiracy took place during times when the US banned sales of Nvidia chips to China.

Singaporean authorities also laid new charges of benefiting from criminal conduct, and issued orders preventing disposal of a “Good Class Bungalow” valued at $SGD55 million ($42 million/£$31.5 million) as it may be the proceeds of crime.

The value of Supermicro shares is down around 17 percent this week. ®