US investigates alleged diversion of Nvidia AI chips through Thailand
U.S. prosecutors this year outlined an alleged scheme in which Super Micro’s co-founder worked with an unnamed Southeast Asian company and a network of third-party brokers to route AI semiconductors in violation of U.S. trade restrictions. The company, identified only as “Company-1” in court filings, was named by sources as Bangkok-based OBON Corp.
Sources speaking anonymously due to the legal and geopolitical sensitivity of the issue claimed that some of the servers worth $2.5 billion sold to OBON were sold to Alibaba.
The allegations were detailed in a March indictment that triggered a sharp decline in Super Micro shares and marked one of Washington’s most significant crackdown on alleged AI chip smuggling since the imposition of export restrictions on Nvidia chips to China in 2022.
Neither OBON nor Alibaba are named in the indictment, and US authorities have publicly accused both companies.
Alibaba denied any involvement. “Alibaba has no business relationship with Super Micro, OBON, or any third-party brokers named in the indictment,” a company spokesperson said, adding that it has never used the banned Nvidia chips in its data centers.
A relatively unknown firm outside tech circles, OBON helped launch Thailand’s dominant cloud startup, Siam AI. In a statement in May 2024, OBON said it plans to install Nvidia servers in Bangkok to support Siam AI Cloud and develop Thailand’s AI ecosystem.
Siam AI later became Thailand’s first official Nvidia Cloud Partner and hosted Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang at an event introducing “sovereign AI” in December 2024. Siam AI CEO Ratanaphon Wongnapachant, the nephew of former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, was also OBON’s CEO until at least May 2024, according to company documents.
