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Super Micro’s Super Smugglers

April 24, 2026 · 22 min

Show notes

Another day, another AI chip smuggling ring has been busted by the United States government. But this one is different: for the first time, executives from U.S. server manufacturer Super Micro have been charged with selling NVIDIA chips to Chinese buyers — a violation of U.S. export controls.

Reporter Eliot Chen returns to the podcast with editor Andrew Peaple to discuss how the operation worked, and why smuggling chips to China is seemingly so hard to stop.

Also, we’ll have a clip from our forthcoming Q&A with author Nicholas Niarchos on the impact that the push for clean energy is having on the countries that supply many of the key resources needed for products like batteries and electric vehicles.

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