英伟达公司在台湾检方指控一名员工协助将AI芯片走私入境中国后，向台湾官员提出申诉，引发外界对该公司如何看待自身在遏制非法贸易中角色的新质疑。
Corp. appealed to Taiwanese officials after prosecutors on the island accused an employee of helping to smuggle AI chips into China, raising fresh questions about how the firm views its own role in stopping the illicit trade.
据知情人士透露，该公司就今年7月一名姓张的英伟达经理被捕一事，向政治官员表达了担忧。该经理于8月因伪造文书及背信罪名被起诉。台湾检方将张某描述为一个据称将74台装有英伟达芯片的服务器走私至中国、并试图再转移56台（后于5月被台湾海巡署查获）网络的“核心人物”。
The company expressed concerns to political officials about the July arrest of an Nvidia manager surnamed Chang, who was indicted in August on charges of forgery and breach of trust, according to people familiar with the matter. Taiwanese prosecutors described Chang as the “core figure” of a network that allegedly smuggled 74 servers containing Nvidia chips to China before attempting to divert another 56 that were seized by Taiwan’s Coast Guard in May.
知情人士称，英伟达代表告诉台湾官员，他们不同意对张某的指控——张某是该案九名被告之一——并认为他不应受到调查。这些人因讨论敏感事项而要求不具名。英伟达在给彭博社的声明中表示，公司“已按照惯例彻底调查此事，未发现有迹象表明我们的员工知晓其他公司员工涉嫌的转移行为。”据知情人士称，政治官员告诉英伟达，他们不参与法律程序，该案由台湾基隆地方检察署办理。
Nvidia’s representatives told Taiwanese officials they disagreed with the charges against Chang, who is one of nine defendants in the case, and believed he should not be under investigation, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing a sensitive matter. In a statement to Bloomberg, Nvidia said it “investigated this matter thoroughly, as is our standard practice, and found no indication that our employee knew of the alleged diversion effort by employees at other companies.”The political officials told Nvidia that they had no role in the legal proceedings, which are being handled by the Taiwan Keelung District Prosecutors Office, according to the people.
此案是已知首起因芯片转移相关活动而起诉英伟达员工的案件，将受到密切关注，因为公司正在应对上周长期首席执行官黄仁勋被罢免的事件。他的下台在很大程度上是由于他本月承认与一名名为Alice Huang（黄爱丽丝，音译）的女子有婚外情，该女子被美国官员涉嫌为中国从事间谍活动。
The trial — which constitutes the first known prosecution of an Nvidia employee for activities related to chip diversion — will be closely watched as the company grapples with last week’s ouster of longtime Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang. His removal was spurred in large part by his admission this month to an extramarital affair with Alice Huang, a woman suspected by US officials of spying for China.
Alice Huang与黄仁勋无亲属关系，也是新加坡Megaspeed International（迈速国际）的创始人，华盛顿正因芯片走私担忧对该公司进行调查。Megaspeed否认有任何不当行为。
Alice Huang, who has no relation to Jensen Huang, is also the founder of Singapore-based Megaspeed International, which Washington has been probing over chip smuggling concerns. Megaspeed has denied wrongdoing.
台湾案件与华盛顿的“超速”调查是分开的，彭博社报道称英伟达也介入了该调查。芯片转移对这个岛屿民主体制而言是一个特别敏感的问题，因为英伟达绝大部分处理器都在那里制造——而前英伟达老板多年来一直被视为家乡英雄。
The Taiwan case is separate from Washington’s Megaspeed investigation, in which Nvidia also intervened, Bloomberg has reported. Chip diversion is a particularly sensitive issue for the island democracy, where the lion’s share of Nvidia’s processors are manufactured — and where the former Nvidia boss was for years held up as a hometown hero.
华盛顿于2022年首次限制向中国出售英伟达加速器，理由是此类硬件可能增强北京的军事实力。在多年施压后，台北现在计划与美国措施保持一致，这是赖清德总统政府更广泛的鹰派转向的一部分。与此同时，台湾正依据涉嫌违反其他当地法律，起诉疑似走私者。
Washington first curbed sales of Nvidia accelerators to China in 2022, citing the risk that such hardware could boost Beijing’s military. After years of pressure, Taipei is now planning to align with US measures, part of a broader hawkish turn by President Lai Ching-te’s administration. In the meantime, Taiwan is prosecuting suspected smugglers based on alleged violations of other local laws.
尽管英伟达对该岛极度依赖，但其制造基地缺乏政府关系总监，仅最近才发布了此类职位招聘。据知情人士透露，在试图应对走私案时，英伟达求助于其制造合作伙伴——台积电，即该岛科技产业的基石——寻求建议。知情人士称，台积电拒绝介入。
Despite Nvidia’s existential reliance on the island, it lacks a government relations director for its manufacturing base, having only recently advertised such a job opening. As it tried to navigate the smuggling case, Nvidia turned to its manufacturing partner — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the linchpin of the island’s technology industry — for advice, according to people familiar with the matter. TSMC declined to get involved, the people said.
就其接触台积电和政治官员一事，英伟达表示：“我们像任何公司一样进行了接触，以提供台湾当局要求的信息，并确保我们员工的福祉，希望此事能尽快解决。”台湾经济部未回应置评请求，而台积电拒绝置评。
Asked about its outreach to TSMC and political officials, Nvidia said that “we engaged, as any company would, to provide the information requested by Taiwan authorities and to ensure our employee’s well-being, and hope the matter can be resolved as quickly as possible.”Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs did not respond to requests to queries, while TSMC declined to comment.
目前尚不清楚英伟达所指的台湾当局信息请求具体为何，也不清楚这家芯片制造商为何选择在政治层面而非仅在司法层面与官方接触。基隆地检署发言人陈柏文表示，该署负责办理此案，理论上会向相关单位调取资料，但并不知情英伟达与台湾政府的沟通情况。
It’s unclear what request for information from Taiwan authorities Nvidia is referencing, or why the chipmaker chose to engage officials at a political level rather than just a judicial one. Chen Po-wen, a spokesman for the Keelung prosecutors office — which is handling the case and would theoretically solicit information from relevant parties — said that it was unaware of Nvidia’s communications with the Taiwan government.
陈柏文补充说，案件正在地方法院审理中。起诉书称，张姓被告面临最高五年有期徒刑，量刑考量了其“参与程度及犯后态度”。彭博社无法联系到张姓被告置评，起诉书中仅以其姓氏代称。
Chen added that the case is proceeding in a district court. Nvidia’s Chang faces up to five years behind bars — the maximum penalty, the indictment said, accounting for his “participation level and post-crime attitude.”Bloomberg has been unable to reach Chang, who was identified in the indictment only by his surname, for comment.
具体而言，张姓被告涉嫌协助英伟达批准向一家本地基础设施供应商出售130台搭载先进芯片的服务器，尽管该公司在台湾数据中心缺乏足够空间安装这些设备。
Specifically, Chang is alleged to have helped secure Nvidia’s approval to sell 130 servers with advanced chips to a local infrastructure provider despite the company lacking sufficient space to install them at a Taiwanese data center.
检方在另一份与起诉书相关的声明中补充称，该基础设施供应商“资金不足，且货款源自一家中国实体”，其高管也已被起诉；张姓被告刻意隐瞒了这一信息。
In a separate statement related to the indictment, prosecutors added that the infrastructure provider, whose executives have also been charged, “lacked sufficient funds and that the payment for the goods originated from a Chinese entity” — and that Chang deliberately concealed this information.
台湾案件只是过去一年来半打芯片转移相关起诉案件之一，随着证据不断积累，美国和亚洲当局开始拼凑出一条黑市链条，据信已将数十亿美元价值的英伟达硬件走私至中国。
The Taiwan case is just one of a half-dozen chip diversion-related prosecutions over the past year, as authorities in the US and Asia begin to piece together a black market that they believe has smuggled billions of dollars’ worth of Nvidia hardware to China.
随着证据不断增加，黄仁勋——多年来一直坚称没有证据表明其产品被转移——从否认影子贸易存在，转为淡化其重要性，并强调英伟达分销链条中其他环节的责任。
As evidence mounted, Jensen Huang — who was for years adamant that there was no evidence his products had been diverted — shifted from denying the existence of the shadow trade to downplaying its significance and emphasizing the responsibilities of others in Nvidia’s distribution chain.
台湾海岸警卫队在5月查获56台服务器数日后，黄仁勋访问了台北。当时他被问及英伟达能做些什么来防止此类计谋。他表示，公司在向合作伙伴解释出口规则方面“严谨”，并呼吁组装相关硬件的超微电脑公司加强尽职调查。张某几个月后被捕。
Days after Taiwan’s Coast Guard seized the 56 servers in May, Huang visited Taipei, where he was asked what Nvidia could do to prevent such schemes. He said the company was “rigorous” in explaining export rules to its partners and called on Super Micro Computer Inc., which assembled the hardware in question, to strengthen its due diligence. Chang was arrested a few months later.
即使英伟达开始在遵守芯片出口管制方面自我监管，该公司在某些政府官员对其买家哪些活动应受到更严格审查的评估上，从根本上存在分歧。
Even as Nvidia begins to self-regulate on compliance with chip export controls, the company has fundamentally disagreed with some government officials’ assessment of the sort of activities from its buyers that should merit a closer look.
黄仁勋曾多次表示，英伟达优先考虑拥有足够基础设施、能立即投入使用其产品的客户。但当此前被问及英伟达批准向据称缺乏必要数据中心空间的公司出售芯片、随后硬件被转移的案例时，英伟达表示，“一家初创公司在友好国家的增长计划是美国的机遇，而非令人恐惧的‘危险信号’。”在目前英伟达危机的核心——迈速公司案例中，该芯片制造商去年试图追踪售予该公司的硬件，结果发现约5万颗芯片下落不明。
Huang had repeatedly said Nvidia prioritizes customers with sufficient infrastructure to put its products to immediate use. But when asked previously about instances in which Nvidia approved chip sales to companies that allegedly lacked the requisite data center space — and then diverted the hardware, Nvidia said that “a startup’s growth plan in a friendly nation is an opportunity for America, not a ‘red flag’ to be feared.”In the case of Megaspeed, which is at the center of Nvidia’s current crisis, the chipmaker’s attempts last year to locate hardware sold to the company came up about 50,000 chips short.
英伟达后来告诉彭博社，它造访了单独的仓库并找到了失踪的硬件，但拒绝透露观察到的服务器数量或安装时间。
Nvidia later told Bloomberg that it visited separate warehouses where it found the missing hardware, while declining to specify the quantity of servers observed or when they’d be installed.
英伟达总法律顾问蒂姆·特特还干预了美国对迈速公司的调查。他致电负责监管芯片出口管制的商务部官员杰弗里·凯斯勒，询问爱丽丝·黄于2025年6月在新加坡被拘留一事，当时新加坡当局正在对她创立的公司进行自己的调查。英伟达表示，特特当时不知情黄仁勋与爱丽丝有染。
Nvidia’s general counsel, Tim Teter, also meddled in the US investigation into Megaspeed. He called Jeffrey Kessler, the Commerce Department official overseeing chip export controls, to inquire about Alice Huang’s June 2025 detention in Singapore, where authorities were conducting their own investigation into the company she founded. Nvidia has said Teter was unaware of Jensen Huang’s affair with Alice at the time.
据彭博社报道，特特的呼吁最终促使美国商务部工业与安全局（BIS）暂停了调查，并于2025年底前将此事移交司法部处理。这两个机构通常会在导致刑事起诉的芯片走私案件上合作，但BIS完全叫停自身行动的情况并不常见。
Teter’s call ultimately led the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security to pause its investigation and turn the matter over to the Justice Department by the end of 2025, Bloomberg has reported. The two agencies typically collaborate on chip smuggling cases that result in criminal prosecutions, but it’s unusual for BIS to completely halt its efforts.
新加坡内政部表示，在此期间，该部曾多次试图就其单独调查的“极速”（Megaspeed）案与美方合作，但鲜有回应。周日，新加坡数字发展及新闻部表示，新加坡正继续就与“极速”有关的事项与美方进行讨论。
Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs has said it repeatedly tried to work with US authorities on its separate Megaspeed investigation during that period but received little response. On Sunday, its Ministry for Digital Development and Information said the island is continuing discussions on matters relating to Megaspeed with the US.
与此同时，爱丽丝目前人在北京。新加坡官方于2月归还了她的护照，此前当局认定证据不足，无法对她提起指控。
Alice, meanwhile, is now in Beijing. Singaporean officials returned her passport in February after authorities determined they lacked sufficient evidence to bring charges.