Mass smuggling of up to 1.5 million Nvidia AI GPUs could be the underlying cause of Jensen Huang's departure, analysts claim

What happened

According to Tom's Hardware on 13 November 2026, research firm SemiAnalysis estimated in its latest newsletter that, despite U.S. export controls, more than 1.5 gigawatts (GW) worth of restricted Nvidia AI hardware ultimately ended up in China in recent years — equivalent to up to about 1.5 million GPUs if all were B200 SXM rated up to 1,000W, or about 2.142 million if all were H200 SXM rated up to 700W, with the actual total depending on the mix of H200 and B200 accelerators. The estimate excludes processors Nvidia specifically developed to comply with U.S. export rules, such as the H20 or H800. SemiAnalysis also claims the U.S. Department of Commerce has reached a similar conclusion about the scale of unauthorized shipments, but it did not disclose the exact number of accelerators shipped illegally or their split between Nvidia's product generations. Supporting cases include: Supermicro co-founder Wally Liaw, Taiwan sales executive Steven Chang, and contractor Willy Sun, charged in March 2026, with the indictment alleging approximately $2.5 billion worth of servers were sold to a company in Southeast Asia, of which $510 million worth of equipment was subsequently diverted to China and obtained by Alibaba; and a second case involving nine individuals associated with Nvidia, Albatron, Chief Telecom, Flying Tiger, and Supermicro in Taiwan, accused of arranging unauthorized exports of 130 Nvidia B300-based servers, 74 of which eventually reached China — both cases are still before the courts. One report claims Alice Huang was personally responsible for facilitating the smuggling of $7.5 billion of Nvidia AI hardware into China, around 240,000 GPUs, mostly H100 and H200 models. SemiAnalysis speculates the scale of these violations may explain why Jensen Huang's departure occurred at this point in time, but the report provides no direct evidence that intelligence agencies influenced Nvidia's board or that Huang participated in unauthorized exports. Separately, the Remote Access Security Act (RASA), meant to extend U.S. export-control authority to remote access to advanced AI hardware hosted outside China, passed the House of Representatives on January 12; Nvidia and Oracle have actively opposed the proposal, and the legislation remains a proposal. The source does not state the cause as confirmed, presenting these as analyst claims.

Impact and signal

Affected components and suppliers

Source and time

Source: Tom's Hardware · 11/13/2026 · View original source