Alibaba Faces Probe Over $2.5B Nvidia Chip Smuggling via Thai Firm
BABA•US authorities suspect Bangkok-based OBON Corp diverted $2.5B worth of Nvidia-powered Super Micro servers to Alibaba since 2024, including $500M shipped between April and May 2025. Alibaba denies any ties to OBON or Super Micro and says banned Nvidia chips were never used in its data centers.
1. Smuggling Scheme and Financial Scale
US authorities identified OBON Corp as the Southeast Asian middleman in a smuggling ring that diverted $2.5B of Nvidia-equipped Super Micro servers to China, with over $500M shipped between April and May 2025 to end customers including Alibaba.
2. Alleged Logistics and Compliance Breach
The scheme involved stripping servers of identifying marks and reboxing them in Thailand to bypass US export controls, prompting a Commerce Department order freezing all outbound shipments to the intermediary.
3. Alibaba’s Position
Alibaba maintains it has no business relationship with OBON or Super Micro and asserts that no prohibited Nvidia AI chips have ever been deployed in its data-center infrastructure.
4. Potential Risk and Outlook
The investigation raises questions over Alibaba’s supply-chain oversight and potential regulatory penalties, creating uncertainty for its cloud-services segment and broader stock valuation.
