Senators Warren and Banks Call for Suspension of Nvidia Export Licenses to China and Southeast Asia

Senators Elizabeth Warren and Jim Banks, in a bipartisan letter, urged the Commerce Department to immediately pause export licenses allowing Nvidia chips to flow to China and Southeast Asia following the indictment of Supermicro co-founder Wally Liaw. Liaw, 71, was arrested in California on March 19 and charged with conspiring to divert .5 billion in Nvidia AI servers to China by routing shipments through a Southeast Asian intermediary. Liaw and two co-defendants face up to 20 years in prison if convicted under the Export Control Reform Act. Supermicro shares fell 33% on the news. Warren and Banks specifically called for licenses covering exports to Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Singapore to be paused, describing a pattern of large-scale diversion through countries that do not have equivalent export control enforcement. The letter represents rare bipartisan alignment on chip export policy between a Democratic senator known for corporate accountability and a Republican aligned with the administration's China hawkishness.