Super Micro contractor Ting-Wei Sun pleads guilty in the case over $2.5bn of AI servers with Nvidia chips diverted to China

Ting-Wei “Willy” Sun pleaded guilty on Thursday, October 8, in federal court in Manhattan, Reuters reported the next day from a court filing. Bloomberg News also reported the plea. The plea was to four counts, including conspiracies to break US export controls, smuggle goods out of the US, defraud the US and obstruct justice. No Justice Department release on the plea itself was found.

Sun was one of three men charged on March 19. The Justice Department's release that day called him a third-party broker and “fixer.” It said that, at the defendants' direction, a Southeast Asian buyer, “Company-1”, bought about $2.5bn of servers in 2024 and 2025, and that at least about $510m of them went to China between late April and mid-May 2025. The release names neither the server maker nor the buyer. Reuters says the maker is widely believed to be Super Micro, whose co-founder Yih-Shyan “Wally” Liaw is charged.

TNW reports that Liaw has pleaded not guilty, and that the third defendant, Ruei-Tsang “Steven” Chang, who managed Super Micro's Taiwan office, has not appeared in court. Super Micro is not a defendant; according to Reuters, it said it fired Sun and cut ties with the others. TNW reports sentencing is set for September 2027.

• Reported Sun pleaded guilty on Oct 8 to four counts, Reuters reported. Reuters via GV Wire
• Reported Bloomberg News also reported the plea at a Thursday hearing. Bloomberg via BGov
• Confirmed The Justice Department says Company-1 bought about $2.5bn of servers in 2024–25, and at least about $510m of them went to China. DOJ Office of Public Affairs
• Claimed Super Micro says it was not named as a defendant. Reuters via WHTC