US Arrests Earthmade CEO Over Alleged $300 Million Nvidia Server Diversion to China

01US Arrests Earthmade CEO, Accusing Him of Using False Documents to Divert More Than $300 Million in Restricted Nvidia Servers to China

US authorities have arrested Greg Lui, the 38-year-old CEO of Earthmade Computer, on allegations that he helped conceal the intended destination of more than $300 million in computer servers ultimately bound for China. The servers contained Nvidia A100 and H100 graphics processing units, chips capable of processing large datasets and training large language models.

The United States restricts exports of those GPUs because officials fear that access to them could advance China’s artificial intelligence or military capabilities. According to the Justice Department, Lui used false paperwork and freight forwarders in Malaysia and Singapore to evade those controls. The FBI alleges that the scheme operated from October 2023 until August 2026.

Prosecutors have outlined the alleged route through shipping documents, emails and bank records. In one example, a 2024 email discussed an order for 70 servers containing export-restricted GPUs whose declared destination was Malaysia. Lui allegedly submitted a purchase order to a US manufacturer for 27 of those servers, valued at about $7.6 million. The Justice Department said a co-conspirator later told a Malaysian government official that all 27 had been shipped to China.

Authorities described a second shipment of 92 export-controlled servers that allegedly traveled through Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong before reaching a company in Hangzhou, China. The FBI has not said in the cited account whether the freight-forwarding companies or the recipient business have been charged.

A third 2024 shipment involved 100 servers containing Nvidia H100 GPUs and valued at more than $22 million. Although the shipment was presented as Malaysia-bound, the FBI alleges that Lui supplied documents from a fictitious buyer whose supposed chief executive was named “Jackie Lui.” Investigators further allege that Lui had purchased another person’s identity documents three years earlier and used that identity in business transactions supporting the export-evasion operation.

The arrest does not establish that the alleged diversions occurred. The shipping arrangements, Chinese destinations, false-buyer records and claimed use of another person’s identity remain prosecution allegations that have not been confirmed by a court. The available source does not report Lui’s response to the charges or the case’s current procedural stage. It also does not establish how much of the more than $300 million in merchandise reached China.

02AI-Generated Reports Surge, Google Pauses Open-Source Bug Bounty Program and Promises an Update Next Quarter

Google has paused its Open Source Software Vulnerability Rewards Program, which pays security researchers for finding vulnerabilities in the company’s open-source software. The suspension took effect on October 1 after what Google called a “significant rise” in automated submissions.

The program gives outside researchers a formal route to disclose security flaws and potentially receive rewards. Security experts had previously warned that low-quality AI-generated material could overwhelm bug bounty programs, which depend on maintainers and engineers reviewing reports to determine whether a claimed vulnerability is real and reproducible.

Google said the vast majority of the increased automated submissions were invalid. According to media reporting cited by TechCrunch, Google engineers and open-source maintainers had been inundated with reports that were either invalid or contained hallucinations—plausible-sounding but fabricated claims produced by AI systems.

That influx created a review bottleneck: engineers still had to examine submissions even when the reported flaws did not exist. Google attributed the pause to the volume and poor validity of automated reports, but did not say how many it had received, what percentage failed review, or how reports already awaiting assessment would be handled.

The company has not announced when the open-source rewards program will resume. It has promised only to provide an update in the first quarter of 2027, leaving researchers without a confirmed reopening date.

During the pause, Google is directing participants to consider its other vulnerability reward programs. The source does not specify which alternatives would accept findings involving software previously covered by the suspended program, so researchers will need to check whether a particular vulnerability falls within another program’s scope.

The suspension does not establish that all AI-assisted vulnerability research is unreliable. It shows that, in this program, Google says automated submissions rose sharply enough—and were invalid often enough—to disrupt the disclosure and review process. The next indication of whether Google will reopen the program or introduce new submission controls is due in the first quarter of 2027.

03Amazon Pledges More Than $1 Billion Over Five Years to Data Center Communities as Environmental Group Says It Sidesteps Pollution

Amazon has pledged more than $1 billion over the next five years to communities near its data centers, as opposition to data center expansion rises across the United States and some projects have been blocked. The company is pairing the donations with promises intended to address concerns about higher electricity costs and pressure on local water supplies.

Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud-computing division, announced the commitments on Friday. AWS CEO Matt Garman said communities would decide how to prioritize the funding, including education, job training, energy affordability, water and energy conservation, and other local needs.

Amazon also promised that its data centers would not increase residents’ power bills or exhaust local water supplies. It reiterated its “water positive” goal for 2030 and said 75% of its projects had already achieved that status.

That figure is Amazon’s own measure of progress. The source does not explain how the money will be distributed, which communities will qualify, or how the company’s pledges on electricity prices and water supplies will be independently verified. Those broader guarantees therefore remain commitments rather than demonstrated outcomes.

Garman also argued that calls for moratoriums on data center construction should end, warning that slowing development could leave American frontier AI behind China. He said US rivals were trying to “trick us into slowing down.”

Stand.Earth, a global environmental nonprofit that works with communities hosting data centers, rejected Amazon’s framing. The group described the donations as damage control for harms it says the company’s data center expansion has already caused.

The organization said Amazon’s plan does little to address pollution. It pointed to Amazon’s support for a proposed power plant that experts expect to become the largest source of climate pollution in the United States. Amazon’s community commitments do not mention that plant and address pollution only narrowly through a promise to use backup generators with the lowest possible emissions. The source does not specify how the proposed plant relates to particular data center projects or whether the donations carry enforceable conditions.