Greg Lui, 38, the owner of a California technology company, was arrested on 2 October 2026 on federal charges of smuggling more than $300 million worth of export-controlled, high-end computer servers containing US-made graphics processing units (GPUs) to China, the US Justice Department announced. Lui allegedly routed the shipments through Malaysia and Singapore to circumvent strict American export controls designed to prevent advanced computing technology from reaching adversaries.

Who Is Greg Lui and What Is the Alleged Scheme

Greg Lui, also known as Yiu Kong Lui, of San Gabriel, California, is the owner of Earthmade Computer Inc., a technology company based in City of Industry, California. According to a federal indictment returned by a grand jury on 29 September 2026 and unsealed following his arrest, Lui and alleged co-conspirators used Earthmade to purchase export-controlled servers and re-route them to China without the licences required by the US Commerce Department.

Prosecutors allege the operation ran from 2023 through 2024, with equipment first dispatched to third countries — primarily Malaysia and Singapore — before being re-exported to China. Lui and his alleged co-conspirators reportedly provided false documentation to US manufacturers, representing that the servers would reach permissible end users and destinations not requiring export licences.

The GPUs at the Heart of the Case

The servers in question contained advanced GPUs, which are critical components for high-performance computing and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The US government restricts exports of such chips to China owing to their potential military applications — a policy that has tightened considerably as Washington and Beijing have clashed over technology access.

One transaction cited in the indictment describes an order placed in January 2024 for 27 servers valued at approximately $7.6 million. The servers were shipped from Los Angeles to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with packing lists explicitly noting that the GPUs inside could not be sent to China without a licence. By March 2024, an alleged co-conspirator had emailed a Malaysian government official confirming the same servers had been transshipped to a China-based buyer, according to prosecutors.

Between January and October 2024, Earthmade reportedly received more than $176 million from two Malaysia-based shipping companies as part of the alleged scheme.

What Prosecutors and Officials Said

First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli said: 'Protecting America's national security means keeping our advanced Super Intelligence technology from being used to strengthen our adversaries' military capabilities. This defendant allegedly used false paperwork and shipments through third countries to smuggle more than $300 million in export-controlled computer servers to China.'

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg added that the indictment 'details alleged efforts to evade US export laws through false documents, staged dummy servers to mislead inspectors, and convoluted transshipment schemes, in order to obfuscate the true destination of restricted SI technology — China.'

The FBI has separately alleged that Lui sold the Chinese government hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of advanced American computing technology — an allegation that has not been proven in court.

Charges and Potential Penalties

Lui faces a three-count federal indictment comprising conspiracy to violate the Export Control Reform Act and Export Administration Regulations, outbound smuggling, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. If convicted on all counts, he faces a statutory maximum of 20 years each on the export-control conspiracy and money-laundering conspiracy charges, and 10 years on the smuggling count.

Lui was expected to make his initial appearance and be arraigned on Friday in federal court in Los Angeles.

Broader Context: US-China Tech Rivalry

This case arrives amid an intensifying US-China technology standoff, during which Washington has progressively tightened restrictions on the export of advanced semiconductors and AI hardware. The Biden and Trump administrations alike have expanded the list of restricted chips, and enforcement actions have multiplied. Notably, this is not the first case in which Malaysia and Singapore have been identified as transshipment hubs for controlled US technology — a pattern that US authorities have said they are actively working to disrupt. The scale of the alleged operation — $300 million routed through front companies and false documents — places it among the largest GPU-smuggling cases prosecuted to date.