Samantha LaDuc
Founder & Strategist of LaDucTrading, Cross-Asset Analysis
Super Micro Computer's fraudulent backdrop is now catching up with it, as it faces fraud charges for smuggling Nvidia GPUs to China. A forensic accounting review flagged it in May 2024 and Bloomberg warned in February 2021, so the best play was not to own it. Nvidia, for which Super Micro is the third-largest customer, may be next, given round-tripping and other accounting dangers. x.com x.comÂ
Super Micro Computer does not deserve anyone's time or money because its governance problems keep mounting. It has dealt with multiple bouts of accounting fraud, a third-party auditor quit over doubts about its financial statements, a co-founder was caught illegally smuggling Nvidia chips into China, and now its offices are being raided. x.comÂ
Super Micro Computer is the worst company added to the S&P 500 this decade, and its governance looks like a scam. Per @ns123abc, co-founder Wally Liaw, who holds about $464 million of the stock, was arrested and charged with smuggling about $2.5 billion of Nvidia GPU servers to China through a Southeast Asian shell company, including building dummy servers to fool compliance auditors. Super Micro fell 12% after hours. x.comÂ
Super Micro Computer's turnaround looks underway as selling pressure has been exhausted. Strength showed even before the stock reclaimed its 200-day moving average, as negative news used up the last supply, shares moved to stronger hands, and positive narratives replaced old negative ones. Past management practices and alleged fraud remain a concern. x.comÂ
Super Micro Computer's 15.5% jump on its Nvidia AI data-center launch looks hard to buy into, because one of its co-founders was charged in an alleged $2.5B scheme to divert AI servers to China. x.comÂ
Super Micro Computer is not to be trusted given its continued history of accounting fraud, and there are far better investments without that risk. The stock just dropped below $30 after smuggling $2.5B worth of Nvidia GPUs to China, which was no surprise. x.comÂ
Super Micro should benefit as data centers buy the servers that house Nvidia's AI chips. Its quarterly sales outlook rose from $15B to $19B; the stock is 36% below its high and trades at 8x next year's earnings. It is a double from here. x.com x.comÂ
Super Micro Computer is not worth the risk regardless of its business or multiple, given early signs of sketchy business that have now escalated. Per @WOLF_Financial, its co-founder was charged with smuggling about $2.5B of servers with Nvidia AI chips to China via a Southeast Asian shell company, using fake paperwork and dummy servers to fool the compliance team. x.comÂ
Super Micro's management cannot be trusted, which is reason enough to stay away. Its claims, especially the "$60B in backlog," deserve heavy skepticism, and the company now sees fiscal Q4 revenue near the low end of its $11B-$12.5B guidance. Reliable management that turns words into action and does not engineer the books is a core requirement, and SMCI fails it. x.com x.comÂ
Super Micro Computer's nearly 40% drop over the past month is a market overreaction, since the allegations targeted a director, not the company, and found no company wrongdoing. Some of the pressure may have been competitor-driven or politically amplified. What matters is engineering strength: it builds roughly all of xAI's servers, is involved early in Terafab, and is often the first partner AI-chip startups such as d-Matrix turn to. It remains a long-term hold. x.comÂ
Super Micro Computer faces governance risk as Taiwan's chip-smuggling probe reaches it. Per the Kobeissi Letter, the stock fell more than 9% after its Taiwan office was raided. The raid is unsurprising given that its CEO smuggled Nvidia products to China. x.comÂ
