A firm connected to Thailand’s national AI initiative has been suspected of smuggling billions of dollars’ worth of Super Micro Computer servers containing advanced Nvidia chips to China, according to a Bloomberg. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. had been identified as one of multiple end customers.
U.S. prosecutors had outlined a scheme this year, in which Super Micro’s co-founder allegedly worked with an unnamed Southeast Asian company and a “rotating cast” of third-party brokers to divert the AI semiconductors in violation of U.S. trade rules. While the prosecutors did not name the firm, the Bloomberg report said the people identified it as Bangkok-based OBON Corp.
An Nvidia spokesperson told Reuters that the company expects its ecosystem partners to adhere to strict compliance at every level, stating that it will continue working with the government to enforce the rules. Alibaba separately told Reuters it has no business ties with Super Micro, OBON or any third-party brokers cited in the indictment, and said banned Nvidia chips have never been used in its data centers.
The United States had banned the export of high-end chips from Nvidia to China, amid concerns over them being used for military purposes. However, recently, the U.S. decided to allow Nvidia’s H200 processors, its second-best artificial intelligence chips, to be exported to China, in a decision that seemed to settle a debate on whether Nvidia and its rivals should maintain a global lead by selling to China or withhold the exports.
There had been some uncertainty over whether Chinese authorities would approve the chip imports—this approval was finally implemented in March.
OBON, which is a little-known company outside tech circles, is responsible for creating Siam AI, Thailand’s sovereign cloud champion, according to a May 2024 press release. OBON said at the time that it would deploy Nvidia servers in a small data center in Bangkok, designed to “empower OBON to launch Siam AI Cloud and revolutionize the country’s AI roadmap.” Siam AI had been incorporated as a separate company four months prior.
Siam AI’s CEO Ratanaphon Wongnapachant told Bloomberg that he left OBON when he launched Siam AI and therefore couldn’t comment on US suspicions that OBON had smuggled chips to China. “I will only answer regarding Siam AI, which is that the company is not involved in this,” he said.
OBON’s alleged involvement in smuggling could pose challenges for Thailand’s AI ambitions and has renewed calls in Washington for tighter restrictions on chip sales to the region. The U.S. has previously considered imposing semiconductor export restrictions on Thailand on multiple occasions, though such measures were never implemented.