US Probes $2.5 Billion Nvidia Chip Smuggling via Bangkok to Alibaba

Thailand's AI ambitions just collided with the biggest chip smuggling case the US has opened since it first restricted Nvidia sales to China in 2022. Bangkok-based OBON Corp is suspected by US prosecutors of helping move at least $2.5 billion worth of Super Micro servers containing restricted Nvidia AI chips into China, with Alibaba named by people familiar with the matter as one of the end customers.

OBON is the unnamed 'Company-1' in a March indictment from the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, Bloomberg first reported. The indictment charges Super Micro co-founder Yih-Shyan 'Wally' Liaw with working with OBON and a 'rotating cast' of third-party brokers to divert the chips. Liaw, who has stepped down from the board and is on administrative leave, has pleaded not guilty.

The Thailand connection

OBON Thailand is an affiliate of One Belt One Network Holdings Limited, registered in the British Virgin Islands. Its paths have crossed with Siam.AI, Thailand's national AI initiative and the country's first official Nvidia Cloud Partner. Siam.AI CEO Ratanaphon Wongnapachant, the nephew of former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, was also OBON's CEO through at least May 2024. In December 2024, Ratanaphon hosted Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang at a Bangkok gala that Thaksin also attended.

Ratanaphon told Bloomberg he left OBON when he founded Siam.AI and cannot comment on the smuggling allegations. He says Siam.AI imports GPUs only for its own use and is not involved.

The numbers behind the case

OBON was at one point Super Micro's 11th most profitable customer. Sales to OBON accounted for roughly $100 million of Super Micro's revenue in the quarter ending June 2024, enough that Super Micro audited the relationship and temporarily paused shipments in October 2024. Imports picked up again in 2025 and climbed sharply in April and May, just before the US was set to require permits for AI chip sales to Thailand under an export controls framework that the Trump team scrapped before it took effect. More than $500 million of the alleged diversions happened between April and mid-May 2025 alone.

Alibaba denies involvement, saying it has no relationship with Super Micro, OBON, or any third-party brokers, and that banned Nvidia chips have never been used in its data centers. Nvidia points to its compliance expectations for ecosystem partners.

What it triggers

The case could force Washington's hand on something it has flirted with three times: export controls on chip shipments into Thailand. The Bureau of Industry and Security has already requested a hold on all shipments to OBON, and that hold remains in effect.

Sources: Bangkok Post, Business Times Singapore