Super Micro: Fresh Evidence Of Accounting Manipulation, Sibling Self-Dealing And Sanctions Evasion At This AI High Flyer
超微公司：这家 AI 行业佼佼者存在会计操纵、兄弟间自利交易及规避制裁的新证据

• Super Micro Computer Inc. is a $35 billion server maker based in Silicon Valley, California that has ridden the wave of AI enthusiasm.
  超微电脑股份有限公司是一家总部位于美国加利福尼亚州硅谷的 350 亿美元服务器制造商，乘着人工智能热潮而崛起。
• Our 3-month investigation, which included interviews with former senior employees and industry experts as well as a review of litigation records, international corporate and customs records, found glaring accounting red flags, evidence of undisclosed related party transactions, sanctions and export control failures, and customer issues.
  我们为期 3 个月的调查，包括采访前高层员工和行业专家，以及审查诉讼记录、国际企业及海关记录，发现了明显的会计警示信号、未披露的关联方交易证据、制裁和出口管制违规，以及客户问题。
• In 2018, Super Micro was temporarily delisted from Nasdaq for failing to file financial statements. By August 2020, the company was charged by the SEC for “widespread accounting violations,” mainly related to $200+ million in improperly recognized revenue and understated expenses, resulting in artificially elevated sales, earnings and profit margins.
  2018 年，超微因未能提交财务报表被暂时从纳斯达克摘牌。到 2020 年 8 月，该公司被美国证券交易委员会指控“普遍存在的会计违规行为”，主要涉及不当确认的逾 2 亿美元收入和低估的费用，导致人为夸大的销售额、利润和利润率。
• Less than 3 months after paying a $17.5 million SEC settlement, Super Micro began re-hiring top executives that were directly involved in the accounting scandal, per litigation records and interviews with former employees.
  在向美国证券交易委员会（SEC）支付 1750 万美元和解金不到 3 个月后，超微公司（Super Micro）开始重新聘用那些直接涉及会计丑闻的高层管理人员，这一情况得到了诉讼记录和前雇员访谈的证实。一位前销售人员向我们透露：“他们几乎全都回来了，那些因违规行为而被解雇的人几乎都回来了。”
• A former salesperson told us: “Almost all of them are back. Almost all of the people that were let go that were the cause of this malfeasance.”
• According to a lawsuit filed in April 2024, Super Micro waited only 3 months after the SEC settlement before restarting “improper revenue recognition,” “recognizing incomplete sales,” and “circumvention of internal accounting controls”.
  根据 2024 年 4 月提起的诉讼，超微公司在 SEC 和解后仅等待了 3 个月，便重新开始了“不当收入确认”、“确认未完成销售”以及“规避内部会计控制”的行为。
• Even after the SEC settlement, pressure to meet quotas pushed salespeople to stuff the channel with distributors using “partial shipments” or by shipping defective products around quarter-end, per our interviews with former employees and customers.
  即使在 SEC 和解之后，为了达成销售配额的压力依然驱使销售人员通过“部分发货”或是在季度末期运送有缺陷的产品，将渠道塞满分销商，这是根据我们对前雇员和客户的采访所得。
• One former salesperson described pushing products to distributors based on made-up demand forecasts, completing a partial shipment, then later coming up with an excuse for why the rest didn’t happen. “And now you have a problem. Accounting problem maybe.”
  一位前销售人员描述了基于虚构的需求预测向分销商推销产品，完成部分发货，随后找借口解释为何剩余部分未能发货的情况。“而现在你面临一个问题，或许是会计问题。”
• Former employees told us Super Micro’s business culture has not improved. Former senior sales director: “I don’t think the behavior of the company in many ways has changed in the 5 years since I started, and I started shortly after that delisting problem.”
  前雇员告诉我们，超微的商务文化并未改善。一位前高级销售总监表示：“我认为公司在许多方面的行为自五年前我入职以来并未改变，而那时距离退市问题不久。”
• Three senior employees who left in early 2018 amidst the accounting scandal were rehired, individually serving as (1) a member of the board of directors (2) a consultant serving close to the CEO (3) and a VP of business development.
  2018 年初因会计丑闻离职的三名资深员工被重新聘用，分别担任（1）董事会成员（2）接近 CEO 的顾问（3）以及业务发展副总裁。
• Former CFO Howard Hideshima left the company in January 2018 and was later individually charged by the SEC with accounting violations. In May 2023, he was hired by a key related party owned by Super Micro CEO’s brother.
  前首席财务官霍华德·海德西马于 2018 年 1 月离开公司，后被美国证券交易委员会单独指控会计违规。2023 年 5 月，他被 Super Micro 首席执行官的兄弟所拥有的关键关联方聘用。
• A new CFO, praised by co-workers for his integrity, was hired in January 2018 to help the company recover from the scandal. He helped Super Micro re-list but resigned in January 2021. A former sales director suggested that he was edged out by the company.
  2018 年 1 月，一名因其正直而受到同事赞誉的新任首席财务官被聘用，以帮助公司从丑闻中恢复。他协助超微公司重新上市，但于 2021 年 1 月辞职。一位前销售总监暗示，他是被公司排挤出去的。
• Beyond fresh questions around its revenue accounting, we found that Super Micro’s relationships with both disclosed and undisclosed related parties serve as fertile ground for dubious accounting.
  除了围绕其收入会计的新问题外，我们发现超微公司与已披露及未披露的关联方之间的关系，为可疑的会计处理提供了肥沃的土壤。
• For example, disclosed related party suppliers Ablecom and Compuware, controlled by Super Micro CEO Charles Liang’s brothers, have been paid $983 million in the last 3 years. Ablecom is also partly owned by Super Micro CEO Charles Liang and his wife.
  例如，由超微电脑 CEO 梁见后兄弟控制的关联方供应商 Ablecom 和 Compuware，在过去 3 年中已获得 9.83 亿美元付款。Ablecom 的部分股权还由超微电脑 CEO 梁见后及其妻子持有。
• The relationships seem oddly circular. Super Micro provides components to the entities which assemble them and sell them back to Super Micro. They also rent warehousing and factory space to Super Micro even though it has its own sprawling factory.
  这种关系似乎显得颇为循环。超微公司向那些组装并将其回售给超微的实体提供组件。即便超微拥有自己庞大的工厂，他们还向超微出租仓储和工厂空间。
• The related parties seem to do little other business: ~99.8% of Ablecom’s exports to the U.S. since 2020 were to Super Micro, and ~99.7% of Compuware’s U.S. exports were to Super Micro, per trade records.
  相关方似乎鲜有其他业务：根据贸易记录，自 2020 年以来，Ablecom 对美国的出口中约 99.8%流向了 Super Micro，而 Compuware 对美国的出口中约 99.7%同样流向了 Super Micro。
• In addition to the concerns around the disclosed related parties, we found evidence of undisclosed related parties. The youngest brother of Super Micro’s CEO owns two Taiwan-based entities that make server components. Media reports and former employees indicate the entities are Super Micro suppliers.
  除了已披露的关联方问题，我们还发现了未披露的关联方证据。超微公司首席执行官的弟弟拥有两家位于台湾的实体，专门生产服务器组件。媒体报告和前员工指出，这些实体是超微的供应商。
• Both entities operate out of the Super Micro Science and Technology Park in Taiwan, but Super Micro has not disclosed related party transactions with them.
  两家实体均位于台湾的超级微型科学与技术园区内运营，但超级微型公司尚未披露与它们之间的关联方交易。
• Another brother of Super Micro’s CEO operates a disclosed related party but is also the director and shareholder of undisclosed Hong Kong and Taiwanese entities, which appear to resell Super Micro products and provide “professional OEM services.” It operates out of the same building as related party Compuware.
  超微公司首席执行官的另一位兄弟经营一家已披露的关联方，同时也是未公开的香港和台湾实体的董事及股东，这些实体似乎转售超微产品并提供“专业 OEM 服务”。该实体与关联方 Compuware 同处一栋大楼内运营。
• Collectively, disclosed and undisclosed related parties pose accounting risks relating to revenue recognition and reported margins. A former executive told us: “Basically it’s a governance issue and just kind of shows you that Charles doesn’t give a shit what you think…you’re right to worry, though, that you just never know what’s lurking.”
  综合来看，已披露和未披露的关联方都带来了与收入确认及报告利润率相关的会计风险。一位前高管告诉我们：“这本质上是个治理问题，它也表明了查尔斯根本不在乎你怎么想……你的担忧是对的，因为你永远不知道背后潜藏着什么。”
• In addition to the CEO’s brothers, the company has an odd relationship with a key customer. In February 2024, Super Micro made an undisclosed investment in tech startup Lambda Labs as part of its $320 million funding round, per Bloomberg and per a confirmation we received from Lambda’s COO.
  除了 CEO 的兄弟们，该公司与一位关键客户之间存在一种特殊关系。据彭博社报道，以及我们从 Lambda 公司 COO 处获得的确认，2024 年 2 月，超微电脑在 Lambda Labs 的 3.2 亿美元融资轮中进行了未公开的投资。
• In August 2024, Super Micro signed an “unusual” $600 million contract to lease space at a California data center and sub-lease it to Lambda. The CFO glossed over questions about the reason for this arrangement.
  2024 年 8 月，Super Micro 签署了一份“非同寻常”的 6 亿美元合同，租赁加利福尼亚州一处数据中心的场地，并将其转租给 Lambda。首席财务官对这种安排的原因避而不谈。
• In October 2023, two related parties run by CEO Liang’s brothers, one of them partially owned by Super Micro’s CEO, reportedly invested in small Taiwanese tech company Leadtek. Leadtek’s website advertises products almost identical to Super Micro’s, yet Super Micro discloses no relationship with Leadtek in what appears to be a clear undisclosed related party.
  2023 年 10 月，由 CEO 梁的兄弟运营的两家关联方，其中一家部分归超微电脑 CEO 所有，据报道投资了台湾小型科技公司丽台科技。丽台科技的网站上宣传的产品与超微电脑几乎如出一辙，然而超微电脑在其看似明显的未披露关联方关系中，并未透露与丽台科技的任何关联。
• Super Micro has claimed its liquid cooling technology will “revolutionize the industry” and is its “competitive edge.” But at a recent industry conference, Super Micro featured related party Ablecom’s liquid cooling solutions, per an Ablecom engineer.
  超微公司声称其液冷技术将“革新行业”，并是其“竞争优势”所在。但在最近的一次行业会议上，超微公司展示了关联公司 Ablecom 的液冷解决方案，这是根据一位 Ablecom 工程师的说法。
• Ablecom has several patents for its liquid cooling technology. Despite this, Super Micro has never disclosed any related party involvement in its liquid cooling technology.
  艾博康拥有多项液体冷却技术专利。尽管如此，超微公司从未披露过其液体冷却技术中的任何关联方参与情况。
• Besides questions around related parties and proprietary product offerings, in 2006, Super Micro pleaded guilty to a felony count of exporting banned components to Iran. The CEO said the company was in its infancy and had learned from its mistakes.
  除了与关联方和专有产品供应相关的问题外，2006 年，超微公司就因向伊朗出口禁运组件的罪名承认了一项重罪。首席执行官表示，当时公司尚处于初创阶段，已从错误中吸取教训。
• When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the U.S. government imposed stringent restrictions and bans on exports to Russia of high-performance computers and components.
  2022 年 2 月俄罗斯入侵乌克兰时，美国政府对向俄罗斯出口高性能计算机及其组件实施了严格的限制和禁令。
• Super Micro disclosed that some of its products were subject to export bans and said it was halting all sales and had “not recorded revenue” from Russia since the day before the war started.
  超微公司披露，其部分产品受到出口禁令限制，并表示自战争开始前一天起已暂停所有销售，且“未从俄罗斯记录任何收入”。
• Exports of Super Micro’s high-tech components to Russia have spiked ~3x since the invasion of Ukraine, apparently violating U.S. export bans, according to our review of more than 45,000 import/export transactions.
  自乌克兰被入侵以来，超微公司的高科技组件对俄出口激增约 3 倍，显然违反了美国的出口禁令。这是我们对超过 45,000 笔进出口交易进行审查后得出的结论。
• At least 46 companies that handled Super Micro products to Russia since the invasion are now under OFAC sanctions or on U.S. government watchlists.
  自入侵以来，至少有 46 家处理超微产品运往俄罗斯的公司现已被美国财政部外国资产控制办公室制裁或列入美国政府监控名单。
• Almost two-thirds of Super Micro’s exports to Russia since the invasion correspond to “high priority” components that the Russian military may be diverting to the battlefield, per U.S. government warnings.
  自入侵以来，超微公司近三分之二的出口至俄罗斯的产品属于美国政府警告中的“高优先级”组件，俄军可能将其转用于战场上。
• One of the biggest importers of Super Micro products in Russia is a supplier to one of Russia’s largest “supercomputers” at a once-secret, now-sanctioned research center. That importer, Niagara Computers, has received at least $46.3 million worth of Super Micro products since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, per trade data.
  俄罗斯最大的 Super Micro 产品进口商之一是该国最大“超级计算机”之一的供应商，该超级计算机位于曾经保密、现已受制裁的研究中心。根据贸易数据，自俄乌战争开始以来，进口商 Niagara Computers 已收到至少价值 4630 万美元的 Super Micro 产品。
• The sales were initially made through a distributor in California, but were later made through 3 newly-formed Turkish shell companies, including one that was eventually sanctioned for smuggling restricted items to Russia.
  销售最初通过加利福尼亚的一家分销商进行，但后来转由三家新成立的土耳其空壳公司进行，其中包括一家最终因向俄罗斯走私受限物品而受到制裁的公司。
• Almost $30 million worth of Super Micro components have also been shipped to Russia’s largest importer of dual-use civilian-military chips via a newly created Hong Kong shell entity. That Russian importer is now under OFAC sanctions.
  近 3000 万美元的超级微型组件通过一家新设立的香港壳公司，被运往俄罗斯最大的军民两用芯片进口商。该俄罗斯进口商目前正受到美国财政部海外资产控制办公室（OFAC）的制裁。
• Since 2016, Super Micro has had a joint venture with a Chinese state-run company called Fiberhome, which is involved in a campaign of “human rights violations and abuses,” high-tech surveillance, and repression of ethnic communities in western China, per the U.S. government.
  自 2016 年起，Super Micro 与中国国营企业烽火通信成立了一家合资公司。据美国政府称，烽火通信参与了一系列“侵犯人权和虐待行为”，涉及高科技监控以及对西部地区少数民族社群的打压。
• Super Micro has sold ~$196 million of sophisticated computer components to the joint venture since Fiberhome was watchlisted by the U.S. government in 2020. Super Micro justifies the sales by saying the JV entity itself wasn’t watchlisted, even though its partner was.
  自 2020 年烽火通信被美国政府列入观察名单以来，超微已向该合资企业销售了约 1.96 亿美元的先进计算机组件。超微辩称，尽管其合作伙伴被列入观察名单，但合资实体本身并未被列入，因此这些销售是合理的。
• Besides accounting issues and sanctions evasion, competition and quality concerns have resulted in major companies dropping Super Micro entirely or reducing their share.
  除了会计问题和规避制裁外，竞争和质量担忧导致大型企业完全放弃超微或减少其份额。
• Nvidia is a key partner and chip supplier to Super Micro. In May 2024, CEO Jensen Huang publicly endorsed Super Micro’s competition: “Nobody is better at building end-to-end systems of very large scale for the enterprise than Dell.”
  英伟达是超微的关键合作伙伴和芯片供应商。2024 年 5 月，CEO 黄仁勋公开支持超微的竞争：“在为企业构建大规模端到端系统方面，无人能及戴尔。”
• CoreWeave was Super Micro’s largest customer over the last year, per Bloomberg Intelligence. But in December 2023, Dell announced a deal with CoreWeave for “thousands” of GPU servers, potentially worth over $1 billion.
  根据彭博智库的数据，CoreWeave 在过去一年中是超微公司最大的客户。然而，在 2023 年 12 月，戴尔宣布与 CoreWeave 达成了一项涉及“数千台”GPU 服务器的交易，潜在价值超过 10 亿美元。
• Tesla had been sourcing its servers exclusively from Super Micro, per Barclays Research in September 2023. But recent reports in May 2024 and posts by Elon Musk show Dell has now won major deals from Tesla, and Musk’s xAI, eroding Super Micro’s exclusivity.
  根据 2023 年 9 月巴克莱研究的报告，特斯拉此前一直独家采购超微公司的服务器。然而，2024 年 5 月的最新报道及埃隆·马斯克的帖子显示，戴尔现已赢得特斯拉及马斯克旗下 xAI 的大宗订单，削弱了超微公司的独家供应地位。
• Super Micro has conceded that it is “under-indexed” with the world’s largest technology companies, called “hyperscalers.” Amazon AWS was a customer but cut ties after delivery issues, per a former employee.
  超微公司已承认，与全球最大的科技公司——被称为“超大规模企业”——相比，其影响力“不足”。据一位前员工透露，亚马逊 AWS 曾是其客户，但因交付问题而终止合作。
• Digital Ocean, a U.S. cloud service provider, switched from Super Micro to Dell after service issues, according to a Digital Ocean employee, describing the relationship as “a train wreck of sorts” fraught with reliability issues.
  据 Digital Ocean 员工透露，这家美国云服务提供商因服务问题从超微转向戴尔，形容双方关系为“某种程度上的灾难”，充满可靠性问题。
• Genesis Cloud is touted as a “success story” on Super Micro’s website. But current and former employees told us otherwise: “Catastrophic. It is, on the technical side, one of my worst experiences I’ve had…in the industry.”
  创世纪云在超微的网站上被誉为“成功故事”。但现任和前任员工却向我们表达了不同的看法：“灾难性的。在技术层面，这是我从业以来最糟糕的经历之一。”
• GMI Cloud, a start-up GPU cloud provider in Asia and the U.S., told us they experienced a malfunction rate of 17.5% on its orders of 256 Super Micro servers. GMI is now moving away from Super Micro to HPE less than a year after its first order, per an employee.
  GMI 云，一家位于亚洲和美国的新兴 GPU 云服务提供商，向我们透露，其 256 台 Super Micro 服务器的订单中出现了 17.5%的故障率。据一位员工称，GMI 在首次下单不到一年的时间里，正从 Super Micro 转向 HPE。
• NexGen Cloud, an Nvidia partner, disclosed in October 2023 that it was investing $1 billion to build an AI super-cloud in Europe with over 20,000 Nvidia GPUs. But a NexGen employee told us that sometimes up to half of the orders received from Super Micro had firmware issues.
  英伟达合作伙伴 NexGen Cloud 在 2023 年 10 月透露，将投入 10 亿美元在欧洲打造一个拥有超过 20,000 块英伟达 GPU 的人工智能超级云。然而，一位 NexGen 员工向我们透露，有时从 Super Micro 收到的订单中，多达一半存在固件问题。
• Multiple former employees and channel partners confirmed that after-sales service is undermining Super Micro’s ability to retain customers. One former salesperson said: “It’s their Achilles heel. It’s just horrible.”
  多位前员工和渠道合作伙伴证实，售后服务正在削弱超微公司留住客户的能力。一位前销售人员表示：“这是他们的致命弱点，简直糟糕透顶。”
• All told, we believe Super Micro is a serial recidivist. It benefitted as an early mover but still faces significant accounting, governance and compliance issues and offers an inferior product and service now being eroded away by more credible competition.
  总的来说，我们认为超微公司是一个屡犯者。作为早期行动者，它曾受益匪浅，但如今仍面临重大的会计、治理及合规问题，其产品和服务质量已不如前，正被更具信誉的竞争对手逐渐侵蚀。

Initial Disclosure: After extensive research, we have taken a short position in shares of Super Micro Computer, Inc. (Nasdaq:SMCI). This report represents our opinion, and we encourage every reader to do their own due diligence. Please see our full disclaimer at the bottom of the report.
初步披露：经过深入研究，我们已对超微电脑股份有限公司（纳斯达克代码：SMCI）的股票采取了空头头寸。本报告仅代表我们的观点，我们鼓励每位读者进行自己的尽职调查。请参阅报告底部我们的完整免责声明。

Background: A $35 Billion Server Manufacturer Based In Silicon Valley
背景：一家位于硅谷的 350 亿美元服务器制造商

Super Micro Computer (“Super Micro”) is a $35 billion high-performance server and storage solutions manufacturer founded in 1993 and headquartered in San Jose, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley. The company originally listed on Nasdaq via a $64 million Initial Public Offering in 2007. 
超微电脑公司（“超微”）是一家市值 350 亿美元的高性能服务器与存储解决方案制造商，创立于1993 年，并总部位于加利福尼亚州圣何塞，地处硅谷核心地带。该公司最初于2007 年通过 6400 万美元的首次公开募股在纳斯达克上市。

Super Micro is a “Rack-Scale Total IT Solutions provider”, offering servers, storage systems, switches, software and global support services. It sells into the following segments: enterprise data centers, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, 5G, and edge computing.
超微作为“机架级全面 IT 解决方案提供商”，提供服务器、存储系统、交换机、软件及全球支持服务。其产品销售覆盖以下领域：企业数据中心、云计算、人工智能、5G 及边缘计算。

Servers and storage systems accounted for 92% of the company’s net sales in 2023. Geographically, 61% of its latest quarterly revenue came from the U.S., followed by 24% from Asia and 10% from Europe, per its August 6^th, 2024 investor presentation.[1] [Pg. 11]
服务器和存储系统占公司 2023 年净销售额的 92%。从地域分布来看，其最新季度收入的 61%来自美国，其次是亚洲占 24%，欧洲占 10%，根据 2024 年 8 月 6 日投资者演示文稿[1] [第 11 页]。

As of its most recent quarter, Super Micro reported that 64% of sales came from its “OEM Appliance & Large [Data Center]” vertical, while 34% of sales came from “Enterprise & Channel” such as technology resellers.[2] [Pg. 12]
截至最近一季度，Super Micro 报告称，64%的销售额来自其“OEM 设备与大型[数据中心]”垂直领域，而 34%的销售额来自“企业与渠道”，如技术经销商[2] [第 12 页]。

Super Micro was co-founded by current CEO Charles Liang, an electrical engineer and systems designer, and his wife Sara (Chiu-Chu) Liu, an accountant. The company was described as a “One man, or at least one-family, powerhouse” in a 2008 profile by the New York Times.
超微公司由现任首席执行官梁见后（一位电气工程师和系统设计师）及其妻子刘 Chiu-Chu（Sara）（一位会计师）共同创立。该公司在《纽约时报》2008 年的一篇报道中被形容为“一个人的，或者至少是一个家庭的强大力量”。

Super Micro’s market cap has increased by 16x over the last 3 years, from $2.2 billion by the end of 2021 to $35 billion in 2024.
超微的市场价值在过去 3 年间增长了 16 倍，从 2021 年底的 22 亿美元飙升至 2024 年的 350 亿美元。

Super Micro was added to the S&P 500 in March 2024, and included in the Nasdaq 100 in late July 2024.
超微电脑于2024 年 3 月被纳入标普 500 指数，并于同年7 月下旬加入纳斯达克 100 指数。

Bull Case: Growth Runway Driven By AI Server Market Demand, Close Relationship With Nvidia, And Proprietary Liquid Cooling Technology
牛市预测：增长潜力由 AI 服务器市场需求、与英伟达的紧密合作关系及自主研发的液冷技术驱动

The bull case for Super Micro is that it offers exposure to meteoric growth in demand for AI chips.
对超微公司而言，其看涨理由在于它能够抓住人工智能芯片需求迅猛增长的机遇。

Super Micro’s server business growth has been driven by increasing demand for GPUs, high performance computing, and rack-scale solutions, particularly for data centers and AI applications, per Super Micro’s 2023 10-K.
超级微电脑的服务器业务增长受到对 GPU、高性能计算和机架规模解决方案日益增长的需求推动，尤其是针对数据中心和 AI 应用，根据超级微电脑 2023 年的10-K报告。

The company is adding capacity to fulfill increasing demand. Super Micro reported it will increase monthly rack scale production capacity from 4,000 racks at the end of December 2023 to 5,000 racks by the end of FY 2024. [Pg. 6]
公司正在增加产能以满足日益增长的需求。Super Micro 报告称，其月度机架规模生产能力将从 2023 年 12 月底的4,000个机架增加到 2024 财年末的 5,000 个机架。[第 6 页]

Super Micro has also been working on liquid cooling technologies for racks with higher energy AI workloads. [Slide 6] Investors have focused on its scale, vertical integration, relationship with Nvidia and quicker time to deliver than peers.[3] [1]
超微还一直在致力于为具有更高能耗的 AI 工作负载开发液体冷却技术。[第六张幻灯片] 投资者关注其规模、垂直整合能力、与英伟达的关系以及比同行更快的交付时间。[3] [1]

Super Micro has seen a 110% year over year increase in revenue growth and a 61% compound annual growth rate over the last 3 financial years. [1, 2, 3]
超微公司过去三年的营收增长率同比达到了 110%，复合年增长率高达 61%。[1, 2, 3]

Sell side consensus forecasts 87% revenue growth in FY 2025, per Bloomberg, predicting rapid further sales growth ahead.
据彭博社报道，卖方一致预期 FY 2025 年营收将增长 87%，预示着未来销售将快速增长。

Fundamentals: Super Micro Competes With Low Cost “ODM” Manufacturers On One Hand And Enterprise Behemoths Like Dell And Hewlett Packard On The Other, Squeezing Margins
基本原理：超微一方面与低成本的“原始设计制造商”竞争，另一方面又与戴尔和惠普等企业巨头角力，压缩了利润空间

The Company’s Core Product Is Increasingly Becoming Commodity-Like
公司核心产品正日益呈现出商品化特征

Super Micro’s core offering is an increasingly commoditized product: the server.
超微的核心产品是一种日益商品化的产品：服务器。

“The server is not a feat of engineering”, one former Super Micro executive told us in an interview.
“这台服务器并非工程壮举”，一位前超微公司高管在接受我们采访时表示。

Key to this is that the company now faces major competition in the AI server market from well-established technology giants like Dell Technologies and Hewlett Packard. Sell-side analysts have raised concerns that Dell has been selling its AI servers at “near-zero margins” to remain competitive, as reported by CNBC.
关键在于，该公司现在面临着来自戴尔科技和惠普等技术巨头的激烈竞争，这些公司在 AI 服务器市场已站稳脚跟。据CNBC报道，卖方分析师已对戴尔以“近乎零利润”销售其 AI 服务器以保持竞争力的做法表示担忧。

In August 2024, Taiwanese manufacturing giant Foxconn announced that it planned for AI servers to be its next “trillion [Taiwanese]-dollar revenue product”.
2024 年 8 月，台湾制造业巨头富士康宣布，计划将 AI 服务器打造成其下一个“万亿[台币]营收产品”。

Super Micro also faces cost competition from less expensive Taiwanese “ODMs” (original design manufacturers), that operate at thin gross profit margins between 4.1% and 10.7% compared to Super Micro´s at 14.1% over the last 12 months.[4] [5]
超微还面临着来自价格较低的台湾“ODM”（原始设计制造商）的成本竞争，这些制造商的毛利率在 4.1%至 10.7%之间，相比之下，超微在过去 12 个月的毛利率为14.1%。[4][5]

Historically, Super Micro has managed to maintain significantly higher gross margins than its peers.
从历史上看，超微公司一直能够保持远高于同行的毛利率。

However, gross margins have started to collapse, from consistently above 15% in fiscal years 2020-2023 to 11.2% in Q4 2024 (March-June for Super Micro).
然而，毛利率已开始大幅下滑，从 2020 至 2023 财年始终保持在 15%以上，降至 2024 财年第四季度（Super Micro 的 3 月至 6 月）的 11.2%。

Part I: Recent Evidence Of Channel Stuffing And Accounting Violations
第一部分：近期关于渠道塞货与会计违规的证据

Over the last 3 months, we investigated Super Micro from the ground up, from entry-level factory workers to former executives and leaders, to understand its business model. This involved extensive interviews with former employees, competitors, distributors, resellers and customers, as well as reviewing company documents, litigation records, international corporate records and customs records.
在过去的 3 个月里，我们从基层工厂员工到前高管和领导者，对超微公司进行了全面调查，以深入了解其商业模式。这一过程包括与前员工、竞争对手、分销商、经销商和客户进行广泛访谈，同时审查了公司文件、诉讼记录、国际企业记录及海关记录。

Our investigation found major corporate governance red flags and evidence of continued improper revenue recognition, following similar charges against the company that resulted in its delisting in 2018 and an SEC charge in 2020.
我们的调查发现，该公司存在重大的公司治理警示信号和持续不当确认收入的证据，这与 2018 年导致其退市及 2020 年 SEC 指控的类似指控相呼应。

Background: In 2018, Super Micro Was Delisted From Nasdaq For Failing To File Timely Financial Statements
背景：2018 年，超微公司因未能及时提交财务报表而从纳斯达克退市

Almost Two Years Later, In Early 2020, It Regained Nasdaq Compliance But Was Charged By The SEC Later That Year For “Widespread Accounting Violations” Mainly Related To Over $200 Million In Improperly Recognized Revenue
两年后，即 2020 年初，它重新符合纳斯达克规定，但同年被美国证券交易委员会（SEC）指控存在“广泛会计违规行为”，主要涉及不当确认超过 2 亿美元的营收

In August 2018, Super Micro shares plunged to a five-year low and the company was delisted from Nasdaq for failing to file financial statements for two consecutive years. 
2018 年 8 月，超微公司股票暴跌至五年低点，并因连续两年未能提交财务报表而被纳斯达克摘牌。

Super Micro was able to regain compliance and relist on Nasdaq in January 2020. However, in August 2020, the SEC charged Super Micro with “widespread accounting violations.”
超微（Super Micro）于 2020 年 1 月成功恢复合规状态并重新在纳斯达克上市。然而，2020 年 8 月，美国证券交易委员会（SEC）指控超微存在“广泛的会计违规行为”。

The SEC found the company essentially engaged in channel stuffing, claiming executives “pushed employees to maximize end-of-quarter revenue”.
美国证券交易委员会（SEC）发现该公司实质上进行了渠道填充，据称高管“推动员工最大化季度末收入”。

Channel stuffing is a deceptive revenue reporting practice whereby companies inflate sales through over-shipping and over-invoicing products to distributors or customers who may not have ordered, needed, or been able to sell the products.
渠道填充是一种欺骗性的收入报告做法，公司通过向分销商或客户过度发货和过度开票来虚增销售额，而这些分销商或客户可能并未下单、需要或能够销售这些产品。

An SEC order stated the company “improperly accelerated revenue recognition and reporting” in multiple ways, including recognizing revenue before delivering goods, sending goods before specified delivery dates, sending incomplete and mis-assembled goods to customers and improperly changing shipment terms, among other methods.
美国证券交易委员会（SEC）的一份命令指出，该公司“以不当方式提前确认和报告收入”，包括在交付商品前确认收入、在指定交货日期前发货、向客户发送不完整及错误组装的商品，以及不当变更运输条款等其他手段。

The SEC alleged that Super Micro prematurely recognized over $200 million in revenue from FY 2015 through FY 2017. [Pgs. 4-8]
美国证券交易委员会(SEC)指控超微公司(Super Micro)在 2015 财年至 2017 财年间提前确认了超过 2 亿美元的收入。[第 4-8 页]

One former sales director we interviewed described the channel stuffing during the period in question:
我们采访的一位前销售总监描述了该时期内的渠道填充情况：

“There was strategies to get things across the quarter line, I heard [of] a shell, you know, dark, warehouses that product would be shipped to and then brought back the next quarter.”
“我听说，为了将物品越过季度线，存在一些策略，比如利用一种名为'壳'的手段，你知道的，那些昏暗的仓库，产品会被运送到那里，然后在下一季度再运回来。”

Super Micro settled the SEC charges for $17.5 million in 2020 and CEO Charles Liang was forced to reimburse Super Micro $2.1 million in stock sale profits.
超微电脑于 2020 年以 1750 万美元解决了美国证券交易委员会（SEC）的指控，而 CEO 梁见后被迫退还超微电脑 210 万美元的股票出售利润。

After relisting and settling the SEC charges, Super Micro told investors that the accounting and financial issues were in the past and that the company had made a “successful comeback”. At the time of relisting in January 2020, CEO Charles Liang said:
重新上市并解决 SEC 指控后，超微公司向投资者表示，会计和财务问题已成为过去，公司已实现“成功回归”。2020 年 1 月重新上市时，CEO 梁见后表示：

“We are pleased to begin a new chapter for Supermicro that is based on improved internal controls and a dedication to profitable growth.” [1]
“我们很高兴为 Supermicro 开启一个新篇章，这一章将基于增强的内部控制和对盈利增长的承诺。” [1]

Not Even 3 Months After The SEC Settlement, The Company Began Rehiring Top Executives Involved In The Accounting Scandal
SEC 和解后不到 3 个月，该公司便开始重新聘用涉及会计丑闻的高层管理人员

Former Super Micro Salesperson: “Almost All Of Them Are Back. Almost All Of The People That Were Let Go That Were The Cause Of This Malfeasance.”
前超微销售人员：“他们几乎全都回来了。那些因不当行为被解雇的人，几乎都回来了。”

Normally, when companies are caught in major accounting scandals, they will fire and permanently distance themselves from the culpable individuals to show that they take corporate governance seriously.
通常情况下，当公司陷入重大会计丑闻时，他们会解雇并永久与责任人保持距离，以表明他们认真对待公司治理。

However, a new lawsuit filed late April 2024 by a former Super Micro general manager, responsible for leading the company’s global service team, alleged that the company rehired key employees who had been “associated with the prior unlawful accounting actions”. [Pg. 5]
然而，2024 年 4 月底，一位曾负责领导公司全球服务团队的前超微（Super Micro）总经理提起了一项新的诉讼，指控公司重新聘用了一批与先前非法会计行为有关的关键员工。[第 5 页]

Six of the individuals mentioned in this new litigation are listed as current employees of Super Micro, per online profiles with LinkedIn and ZoomInfo.[6] [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
根据 LinkedIn 和 ZoomInfo 的在线资料，在这起新诉讼中提到的六个人目前被列为超微公司（Super Micro）的在职员工。[6] [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

One former senior salesperson at Super Micro confirmed to us:
一位超微公司前资深销售人员向我们证实：

“Almost all of them are back. Almost all of the people that were let go that were the cause of this malfeasance.”
“他们几乎都回来了。那些因不当行为被解雇的人几乎都回来了。”

Key Rehire #1: Wally Liaw, Super Micro’s Co-Founder And Former Senior Vice President Of International Sales During The Accounting Scandal, Resigned In January 2018

In 2021, He Was Rehired As A Consultant And By 2023, Was Promoted Back To Super Micro’s Board Of Directors
关键再聘人员#1：Wally Liaw，超微公司的联合创始人及在会计丑闻期间的前国际销售高级副总裁，于 2018 年 1 月辞职。2021 年，他以顾问身份被重新聘用，到了 2023 年，他再次晋升回到超微公司的董事会

Wally Liaw was one of the co-founders of Super Micro, co-founding the company in 1993, per a company press release.
Wally Liaw 是超微电脑的联合创始人之一，根据一则公司新闻稿，他于 1993 年共同创立了该公司。

In August 2017, Super Micro announced it was unable to file its annual report. In January 2018, Super Micro announced Liaw’s resignation along with a trio of executives, including the CFO.
2017 年 8 月，超微宣布其无法提交年度报告。2018 年 1 月，超微宣布了廖的辞职，同时还有包括首席财务官在内的三位高管离职。

Liaw was also named in the 2024 lawsuit, which alleged he was one of the employees associated with the company’s past fraudulent accounting activity. [Pg. 4]
Liaw 也被列为 2024 年诉讼的被告之一，该诉讼指控他是与公司过去欺诈性会计活动相关的员工之一。[第 4 页]

When we spoke to former Super Micro executives, they told us Wally Liaw presided over the sales teams that were involved in the previous accounting violations:
当我们与前超微公司高管交谈时，他们告诉我们 Wally Liaw 曾负责那些涉及先前会计违规行为的销售团队：

“If you go back to Wally’s team, every one of those [people] has their hand in that mess. You can promise yourself that.”
“如果你回到沃利的团队，那些人中的每一个都牵涉其中。你可以确信这一点。”

Another former Super Micro executive who was aware of the investigations told us they believed Liaw had been directly involved:
另一位了解调查情况的前超微高管告诉我们，他们认为廖建文直接参与了此事：

“The stuff I remember that was a little bit more egregious…an example, putting stuff on a truck and [that] truck would sit in someone’s parking lot for a few days. That to me was more of like an arrangement with the transportation company. Not great… And then based on the investigation, it sounds like it was Wally. So then Wally got let go.”
“我记得那些稍微更过分的事情……比如，把货物装上卡车，然后那辆卡车会在某人的停车场里停放几天。对我来说，这更像是一种与运输公司的安排。不太好……然后根据调查，听起来像是 Wally。于是 Wally 就被解雇了。”

In May 2021, Liaw was rehired as a consultant to Super Micro, before joining the board again in December 2023, per Super Micro’s press release.
2021 年 5 月，Liaw 被重新聘用为超微的顾问，随后于 2023 年 12 月再次加入董事会，根据超微的新闻稿。

One former executive told us they had questioned the decision to rehire Wally, asking at the time:
一位前高管告诉我们，他们曾对重新聘用沃利的决定提出质疑，当时问道：

”Why are we having this conversation about Wally coming back as a contractor? So when I saw him come back, I had the same thought, like, wow, that’s, uh, that’s interesting.”
“为什么我们会有关于沃利作为承包商回归的讨论？所以当我看到他回来时，我也有同样的想法，哇，这真是，呃，挺有意思的。”

Key Rehire #2: Phidias Chou, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales During The Accounting Scandal, Resigned In January 2018
关键再聘#2：菲迪亚斯·周，全球销售高级副总裁，在会计丑闻期间，于 2018 年 1 月辞职

In April 2024, He Attended A Super Micro Meeting Alongside CEO Charles Liang At Asia University, Taiwan, Where He Was Identified As “Deputy CEO”
2024 年 4 月，他作为“副首席执行官”身份，与首席执行官梁见后一同参加了在台湾亚洲大学举办的超级微型会议

In 2018, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales, Phidias Chou, resigned from the board of directors alongside the former CFO and Wally Liaw during the time period of the accounting scandal.
2018 年，全球销售高级副总裁 Phidias Chou 与前任首席财务官及 Wally Liaw 在会计丑闻期间辞职离开了董事会。

Chou was also specifically alleged to be one of the sales members associated with prior unlawful activity, per the same 2024 legal complaint. [Pg. 4]
周某亦被特别指控为与先前非法活动相关的销售人员之一，根据同一 2024 年法律诉讼文件。[第 4 页]

Normally, leaving amid an accounting scandal would be the end of an executive’s association with a firm. Yet a recent media report in April 2024 by Asia University, Taiwan, reported that Phidias Chou attended a Super Micro meeting with CEO Charles Liang, where Chou was vaguely identified as “deputy CEO”.
通常情况下，在会计丑闻中离职意味着高管与公司关系的终结。然而，台湾亚洲大学 2024 年 4 月的一份近期媒体报道指出，Phidias Chou 与 CEO Charles Liang 一同出席了超微公司的会议，会上 Chou 被模糊地称为“副 CEO”。

In another article, describing the same meeting, he was simply referred to as a “consultant”.
在另一篇文章中，描述同一场会议时，他仅被称为“顾问”。

Key Rehire #3: Salim Fedel, Vice President Of Sales During The Accounting Scandal, Left The Company In March 2018
关键再聘用 #3: 会计丑闻期间的销售副总裁萨利姆·费德尔，于 2018 年 3 月离开公司

In October 2020, He Was Re-Hired As Vice President Of Business Development And Strategic Sales
2020 年 10 月，他重新受聘为业务发展与战略销售副总裁

Salim Fedel rose to Vice President of Sales during his employment at Super Micro between 2005-2018, per his LinkedIn profile. His profile states he was “leading a global team of business development and sales managers in the US and MENA regions” by 2018.
Salim Fedel 在 2005 年至 2018 年间于超微公司任职期间晋升为销售副总裁，根据其领英档案。其资料显示，到 2018 年，他已“领导美国和中东及北非地区的全球业务发展和销售经理团队”。

The 2024 lawsuit against Super Micro alleged that he, too, was associated with unlawful activities. [Pg. 4] A former executive told us the same:
2024 年对超微公司的诉讼指控其同样涉及非法活动。[第 4 页]一位前高管向我们透露了相同的情况：

“He was involved with the restatement. He was one of the sloppy salespeople. He got fired because he was so aggressive.”
“他参与了重新陈述。他是那些粗心的销售员之一。他因为过于激进而被解雇了。”

After leaving in 2018, he then mostly spent two years at computer hardware manufacturer Asus, before Super Micro rehired him as Vice President of Business Development and Strategic Sales in October 2020, per his LinkedIn. 
2018 年离职后，他主要在计算机硬件制造商华硕度过了两年时间，随后于 2020 年 10 月，根据他的领英资料显示，超微电脑重新聘任他为业务发展与战略销售副总裁。

Key Rehire #4: Howard Hideshima, Super Micro’s Former CFO, Who Was Charged With Accounting Violations By The SEC, Left In January 2018
关键再聘人员#4：何华实，超微电脑前首席财务官，曾因会计违规被美国证券交易委员会起诉，于 2018 年 1 月离职

In May 2023, He Was Hired By A Key Related Party Owned By Super Micro CEO’s Brother
2023 年 5 月，他受聘于超微首席执行官的兄弟所拥有的关键关联企业

Howard Hideshima left the firm in January 2018, and unlike others reportedly involved in the scandal, he was later specifically named in the SEC charges for engaging in “improper accounting” and “internal accounting controls failures, which resulted in SMC [Super Micro] systematically prematurely recognizing and reporting revenue and understating expenses”, per the SEC order. [Pg. 2]
霍华德·海德岛于 2018 年 1 月离开了公司，与据报道涉及该丑闻的其他人员不同，他后来被美国证券交易委员会（SEC）的具体指控中点名，因从事“不当会计行为”和“内部会计控制失败，导致 SMC [超微公司]系统性地过早确认和报告收入以及少报费用”，根据 SEC 的命令。[第 2 页]

He was ordered to pay $351,056 for his role in the improper accounting. [Pg. 2]
他被责令支付 351,056 美元，因其在不当会计行为中的角色。[第 2 页]

Nevertheless, Hideshima was rehired as a consultant in May 2023 to a related party entity of Super Micro called Ablecom Technology, according to his LinkedIn profile. Ablecom is led by Super Micro CEO Charles Liang’s brother. Super Micro’s CEO and his wife own 10.5%. The entity has hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions with Super Micro a year, per its 10-K. [See Part II for more on this.]
尽管如此，Hideshima 在 2023 年 5 月被重新聘为 Super Micro 相关实体 Ablecom Technology 的顾问，根据其LinkedIn 个人资料显示。Ablecom 由 Super Micro 首席执行官Charles Liang 的兄弟领导。Super Micro 的 CEO 及其妻子持有该公司 10.5%的股份。该实体每年与 Super Micro 有数亿美元的交易，根据其10-K 报告。[更多详情见第二部分。]

A New CFO, Regarded For His Integrity, Was Hired In January 2018 To Help The Company Relist Amidst The Scandal
2018 年 1 月，公司聘请了一位以诚信著称的新首席财务官，以助其在丑闻中重新上市

He Resigned In January 2021. A Former Sales Director Suggested He Was Edged Out By The Company
他于 2021 年 1 月辞职。一位前销售总监暗示，他是被公司排挤出去的。

CFO resignations are often scrutinized closely by investors due to the implications for accounting and compliance practices.
首席财务官的辞职通常会受到投资者的密切关注，因为这可能对会计和合规实践产生影响。

At Super Micro, Kevin Bauer was appointed as CFO in January 2018, when the company was undergoing an audit committee investigation and attempting to file clean financials.
在超微公司，凯文·鲍尔于2018 年 1 月被任命为首席财务官，当时公司正经历审计委员会的调查，并努力提交无瑕疵的财务报告。

Former employees spoke of Bauer’s role in getting the company back to its listed status. One former executive said:
前员工们谈及鲍尔在帮助公司恢复上市地位方面所起的作用。一位前高管表示：

“Salt of the earth…He´s the kind of guy, you trust that guy never to steal from you or lie. Total boy scout. Total respect for him. He was the one who really fixed the financial situation, like got a restatement done. He was like in a bunker for two years.”
“社会的中坚分子……他是那种人，你会相信他绝不会偷窃或撒谎。完全是个童子军。对他完全尊重。正是他真正解决了财务状况，比如完成了重述。他在掩体里待了整整两年。”

Bauer helped Super Micro relist in January 2020 and settle SEC charges in August 2020. Five months after the settlement, on January 29^th, 2021, Kevin Bauer resigned.
Bauer 帮助 Super Micro 于 2020 年 1 月重新上市，并在2020 年 8 月解决了 SEC 的指控。和解五个月后，即 2021 年 1 月 29^日，Kevin Bauer 辞职。

One sales director told us they believed the CFO had been edged out after the restatement and settlement:
一位销售总监告诉我们，他们认为在重述和和解之后，首席财务官已被排挤出局：

“So the SEC probably liked that guy [Bauer]. They [Super Micro] worked it. And as soon as they were ready to go and they cut his head.”
“所以 SEC 可能挺喜欢那家伙[鲍尔]。他们[超微]处理得挺好。一旦他们准备就绪，就把他给开除了。”

After Bauer’s resignation in January 2021, Super Micro appointed David Weigand to the role of CFO.
在 2021 年 1 月鲍尔辞职后，超微公司任命大卫·韦甘德担任首席财务官一职。

A former employee, responsible for internal oversight, told us “it doesn’t seem like” Weigand was “pushing for the same level of transparency” as Bauer:
一位负责内部监管的前雇员告诉我们，“似乎”Weigand 没有像 Bauer 那样“追求同等程度的透明度”：

“Is David [Weigand, Current CFO] pushing for the same level of transparency as Kevin [Bauer, former CFO]? It doesn’t seem like.”
“大卫[魏甘德，现任首席财务官]是否在推动与凯文[鲍尔，前首席财务官]同等的透明度？看起来似乎没有。”

Former Employees Say Super Micro’s Business Culture Has Not Really Improved Despite The SEC Charge Over Accounting Violations
前员工称，尽管美国证券交易委员会指控其会计违规，超微公司的企业文化并未真正改善

Former Senior Sales Director: “I Don’t Think The Behavior Of The Company In Many Ways Has Changed In The 5 Years Since I Started, And I Started Shortly After That Delisting Problem.”
前高级销售总监表示：“我认为公司在许多方面的行为自 5 年前我入职以来并未发生改变，而我入职不久后便遭遇了退市问题。”

Former employees explained how these rehires were borne out of long-standing relationships with CEO Charles Liang, who valued loyalty over all else. Per one former sales director:
前员工解释了这些重新聘用的人员是如何源于与 CEO 梁见后长期建立的关系，他重视忠诚胜过一切。一位前销售总监表示：

“I wouldn’t take comfort in that. If people were let go because their practices were questionable, to bring them back would give me less comfort. I don’t think the behavior of the company in many ways has changed in the 5 years since I started, and I started shortly after that delisting problem.”
“我不会因此感到安慰。如果人们被解雇是因为他们的行为有问题，再把他们请回来只会让我更不放心。我认为公司在许多方面的行为自五年前我入职以来并没有改变，而我入职不久后就发生了那次退市问题。”

Another sales director attributed it to nepotism:
另一位销售总监将其归因于裙带关系：

“They were hired back. And there was a lot of nepotism. I’m speaking freely.”
“他们被重新聘用。并且存在大量裙带关系。我这是直言不讳。”

Less Than 3 Months After The SEC Charge, Super Micro Restarted “Improper Revenue Recognition”, “Recognizing Incomplete Sales” And “Circumvention Of Internal Accounting Controls” According To A Lawsuit Filed In 2024
在 SEC 指控不到 3 个月后，据 2024 年提起的诉讼显示，超微公司重新启动了“不当收入确认”、“确认未完成销售”及“规避内部会计控制”的行为

An April 2024 lawsuit, brought by the former Head of Global Services, Bob Luong, alleges that Super Micro has continued to engage in falsified revenue recognition after being relisted in 2020.
2024 年 4 月，由前全球服务部门负责人Bob Luong 提起的诉讼指控，超微电脑在 2020 年重新上市后，仍持续进行虚假的收入确认行为。

The complaint specifically alleges, among other issues, that:
投诉特别指出，除其他问题外，以下几点：

1. Revenue was incorrectly allocated to hardware sales rather than service, in the quarter ending December 2020, to artificially boost reported profit margins.
   在截至 2020 年 12 月的季度中，收入被错误地分配给了硬件销售而非服务，以人为地提高报告的利润率。
2. Revenue was prematurely booked even when equipment could not be delivered to and installed for customers.
   即使设备无法交付并为客户安装，收入也被提前记录。
3. Revenue was prematurely booked even when products were faulty or not ready for sale.
   即使产品有缺陷或尚未准备好销售，收入也被提前记录。

Luong tried to blow the whistle on the company and report these issues but was put on leave and later fired as a result, per the ongoing complaint. [Pgs. 7-8]
Luong 试图揭露公司的问题并报告这些情况，但因此被停职，随后遭到解雇，这是持续投诉中的情况。[第 7-8 页]

Our Interviews With Former Employees Corroborate That Super Micro Continued Recognizing Incomplete Sales As Revenue After The SEC Settlement In 2020
我们对前员工的采访证实，在 2020 年 SEC 和解后，超微公司继续将未完成销售确认为收入

Pressure To Meet Quotas Pushed Salespeople To Stuff The Channel With Distributors, Using “Partial Shipments”, Per Former Sales Director
为达成配额压力迫使销售人员通过“部分发货”手段向经销商渠道大量填充库存，据前销售总监透露

A former salesperson we interviewed described aggressive sales practices similar to those that are alleged in the 2024 lawsuit.
我们采访的一位前销售人员描述了与 2024 年诉讼中所指控的相似的激进销售行为。

They told us salespeople worked with distributors of Super Micro, including Avnet and Tech Data to over-ship product to boost numbers, in what appeared to be a channel stuffing scheme.[7] This resulted from sales teams being put under “massive pressure” from Charles Liang each quarter, per the same salesperson.
他们告诉我们，销售人员与超微的分销商合作，包括安富利（Avnet）和技嘉数据（Tech Data），通过超额发货来提升业绩数字，这似乎是一种渠道填充手段。[7]据同一位销售人员透露，这是因为每个季度销售团队都承受着来自梁见后（Charles Liang）的“巨大压力”。

“The fastest way to really build up those numbers is to call Avnet, Tech Data your rep there and say, listen, I need you to tell me you’re going to take 50 units. Can you do it?
“快速提升这些数量的最佳方法就是致电 Avnet、Tech Data，联系那边的代表并说：‘听着，我需要你确认将接收 50 台设备。你能做到吗？’”

“Yeah, I mean, forecast me a number. Tell me you need to get these things, stuff. We’ll do a partial shipment and we’re good. It’ll take them 45 days to come up with an idea that something did not happen the way they wanted. And now you have a problem. Accounting problem maybe.”
“是的，我是说，给我一个预测数字。告诉我你需要这些物品。我们会分批发货，这样就没问题了。他们得花 45 天才能意识到事情并未按他们预期发展。而现在，你面临了一个问题。或许是会计问题。”

When we spoke to a salesperson at Avnet, they told us that unlike Super Micro, competitor Dell did not have inventory buildup with distributors, owing largely to high demand:
当我们与安富利的销售人员交谈时，他们告诉我们，与超微不同，竞争对手戴尔并未在分销商处积累库存，这主要归因于高需求：

“Their demand is too much where if they [Dell] don’t have it paid for already, it’s not there. All of that stuff is spoken for because it has a check in hand, and Dell is basically already sold it”
“他们的要求太高，如果戴尔公司尚未预付款项，那么这些产品就不在库存中。所有这些商品都已被预订，因为买家已持有支票，而戴尔实际上已经售出了这些商品。”

By contrast, Super Micro regularly had inventory build-up with Avnet:
相比之下，超微公司经常与安富利出现库存积压情况：

“Super Micro’s flexible with their inventory where we can build whatever we want with it. Dell won’t let us do that.”
“超微公司对其库存管理非常灵活，我们可以用它来构建任何我们想要的东西。戴尔则不允许我们这样做。”

“Super Micro is just happy they have the check. We [Avnet] paid for it. And then they’re like, you do whatever you want. We got our money.”
“超微公司只是高兴他们收到了支票。我们（安富利）支付了这笔款项。然后他们就像，你们想怎么处理就怎么处理。我们已经拿到钱了。”

Our Interviews Also Corroborate Further Revenue Recognition Issues Related To Shipping Highly Defective Products Around Quarter-End
我们的访谈进一步证实了与季度末大量发出高度缺陷产品相关的收入确认问题

An employee at Genesis Cloud, a current Super Micro customer, highlighted a specific example that resembled past channel stuffing allegations. In June 2023, closing in on Super Micro’s financial year end, Genesis was shipped “pre-production” servers that were not ready for use:
Genesis Cloud 的一名员工，作为当前超微客户，指出了一个与过往渠道塞货指控相似的具体案例。在 2023 年 6 月，临近超微财年结束之际，Genesis 收到了一批“预生产”服务器，这些服务器尚未达到可使用状态：

“We had massive problems with Super Micro, overpromising [and] under-delivering. Shipping pre-production. They were ever so proud to tell us that they were shipping us the first production release of the Gaudi server or Gaudi 2 server. And when it arrived at our data center…. [it was a] pre-production, unit, with basic quality firmware, things like that. We had no end of issues with it.”
“我们与超微公司遇到了严重问题，他们过度承诺而交付不足。运送的是预生产设备。他们非常自豪地告诉我们，正在向我们发送 Gaudi 服务器或 Gaudi 2 服务器的首个生产版本。然而，当这些设备抵达我们的数据中心时……却是预生产单元，配备基础质量的固件，诸如此类的问题层出不穷。我们因此遭遇了无休止的困扰。”

We spoke to an employee at another current Super Micro customer, Crusoe AI, a GPU cloud provider “built…for scale”. They told us an order for AI servers, comprising 1,000 GPUs, was shipped at quarter end, in March 2024, with an estimated 40% GPU failure rate.
我们采访了另一家超级微客户Crusoe AI的员工，这是一家 GPU 云服务提供商，“专为规模构建”。他们告诉我们，在 2024 年 3 月底，即季度末，一批包含 1,000 块 GPU 的 AI 服务器订单已发货，预计 GPU 故障率高达 40%。

“We ordered that first batch of L40S’s, and we had something like a 40% [GPU] card failure rate…”.
“我们订购了第一批 L40S，结果大约有 40%的 GPU 显卡出现了故障……”

They went on to question basic assembly and testing at Super Micro:
他们接着对超微的基本组装和测试提出质疑：

“We just literally went through, ripped every server open…took every card out, cleaned it off, put it back, and then it worked. And so we’re like, hey, guys, did you just not test this? Did you not build them properly? Did they get jiggled in transit? Like, what the hell?”
“我们刚刚实际上经历了一番折腾，把每台服务器都拆开……取出每张卡，清洁干净，再装回去，然后它就正常运行了。于是我们就像，嘿，伙计们，你们难道没测试过这个吗？是不是没组装好？还是在运输过程中被颠簸了？到底怎么回事？”

Part II: Super Micro Has Done Nearly $1 Billion In Transactions With Related Party Entities Controlled By The Liang Family Over The Last 3 Years
第二部分：超微在过去 3 年中与梁氏家族控制的关联方实体进行了近 10 亿美元的交易

Beyond re-hiring executives reportedly involved in its accounting scandal and ongoing signs of questionable revenue recognition, Super Micro exhibits other glaring governance red flags.
除了重新聘用据称涉及其会计丑闻的高管以及持续出现的可疑收入确认迹象外，超微还表现出其他明显的公司治理警示信号。

These fall under the umbrella of what would be expected from a company continuing to manipulate its financials: namely, related party dealings, mainly with supplier companies operated by the younger brothers of Super Micro´s CEO. These include both disclosed and suspected undisclosed related party dealings (the latter of which are further detailed in Part III).
这些情况属于一家公司持续操纵其财务状况的预期范畴：即，与关联方进行的交易，主要是与超微公司 CEO 的弟弟们运营的供应商公司。这包括已披露和涉嫌未披露的关联方交易（后者在第三部分有进一步详细说明）。

Such related party relationships with suppliers can be used to distort financial metrics like gross margins and profitability:
与供应商的此类关联关系可被用来扭曲财务指标，如毛利率和盈利能力：

• If a related party undercharges a public company, gross margins and profitability can appear better than otherwise and the difference can be hidden in the related party’s financials.
  如果关联方低估对一家上市公司的收费，毛利率和盈利能力可能显得比实际情况更好，而差异则可能隐藏在关联方的财务报表中。

• If a related party overcharges a public company, gross margins and profitability can collapse as insiders loot the public company through higher costs, potentially to benefit close associates or family members of executives of the company.
  如果关联方过度收费，一家上市公司的毛利率和盈利能力可能会崩溃，因为内部人员通过提高成本来掠夺上市公司，这可能使公司高管的亲近人士或家庭成员受益。

These issues are made more relevant given Super Micro’s earlier charges by the SEC, which found it “systematically…understated expenses” which “resulted in an understatement of cost of sales and overstatement of gross profit.” [Pg. 9]
考虑到美国证券交易委员会(SEC)早前对超微公司(Super Micro)的指控，这些议题显得更加切题。SEC 发现该公司“系统性地……低估了费用”，这“导致了销售成本的低估和毛利润的高估。”[第 9 页]

Related Party Entities, One Partially Owned By Super Micro CEO Charles Liang And Controlled By His Brothers, Have Been Paid $983 Million In The Last 3 Years
关联方实体，其中一家由超微 CEO 梁见后部分拥有并由其兄弟控制，过去 3 年已获得 9.83 亿美元付款

These Companies Assemble Super Micro’s Products, Warehouse Its Components And Rent It Workspace, Even Though Super Micro Has Its Own Sprawling Factory In Taiwan
这些公司负责组装超微公司的产品，仓储其组件，并为其提供办公空间，尽管超微在台湾拥有自己的庞大工厂

Former Super Micro Executive: “Basically It’s A Governance Issue And Just Kind Of Shows You That Charles Doesn’t Give A Shit What You Think…You’re Right To Worry, Though, That You Just Never Know What’s Lurking”
前超微高管：“基本上这是个治理问题，只是让你看到查尔斯根本不在乎你怎么想……不过，你担心是有道理的，因为你永远不知道潜藏着什么。”

Often, manufacturing companies seek to centralize their factories and supply chain with reputable, dependable suppliers in order to streamline costs and product development.
通常，制造企业会寻求与信誉良好、可靠的供应商集中其工厂和供应链，以简化成本和产品开发流程。

Contrary to this normal approach, Super Micro relies heavily on suppliers privately owned by its CEO’s brothers.
与这种常规做法相反，超微公司严重依赖由其 CEO 的兄弟们私人拥有的供应商。

Over the last 3 years since relisting, Super Micro has disclosed in SEC filings that it paid $983.1 million to two privately-owned, related parties – Ablecom and Compuware – for components and services. [1, 2] Both are based in Taiwan.
自重新上市以来的过去 3 年里，Super Micro 在提交给美国证券交易委员会（SEC）的文件中披露，它向两家私有且有关联的公司——Ablecom 和 Compuware——支付了9.831 亿美元用于购买零部件及服务。[1, 2] 这两家公司均位于台湾。

1. Ablecom was founded in 1997, per its website. Its CEO and largest shareholder is Steve (Jianfa) Liang, a younger brother of Super Micro’s CEO Charles Liang, per the company’s 2023 annual report. Steve Liang owns 28.8% of Ablecom shares along with unnamed “other family members”. Super Micro CEO Charles Liang, and his wife, who also is a director at Super Micro, own 10.5% of Ablecom shares. An unnamed sibling of co-founder Wally Liaw owns 11.7%, per filings.[8] [9]
   艾博康成立于 1997 年，根据其官网信息。其首席执行官兼最大股东是史蒂夫（建发）梁，他是超微电脑首席执行官查尔斯梁的弟弟，根据公司 2023 年的年报。史蒂夫梁与未具名的“其他家族成员”共同持有艾博康 28.8%的股份。超微电脑首席执行官查尔斯梁及其妻子，同时也是超微电脑的董事，持有艾博康 10.5%的股份。根据备案文件，联合创始人赖华利的一位未具名兄弟姐妹持有 11.7%的股份。[8][9]

• Compuware was founded in 2004, per its website. Its CEO is Bill (Jianda) Liang, also a younger brother of Super Micro’s CEO, per the company’s 2023 10-K. Brother Steve Liang (mentioned above) is also a director and shareholder of Compuware.[10] [11]
  康博软件成立于 2004 年，根据其官方网站信息。其首席执行官为比尔（建达）梁，亦是超微电脑首席执行官的弟弟，根据公司 2023 年10-K 报告。上述提及的史蒂夫·梁也是康博软件的董事及股东。[10][11]

As of April 2024, Bill Liang and his immediate family owned 15.83% of Compuware while elder brother Steve Liang and his wife and immediate family owned a much larger 37.67% stake, per shareholdings disclosed in filings by one of its investees. Ablecom owned a 15% stake in Compuware.[12]  [Pg. 18]
截至 2024 年 4 月，Bill Liang 及其直系亲属持有 Compuware 公司 15.83%的股份，而其兄长 Steve Liang 及其妻子和直系亲属则持有更大的 37.67%股份，这些持股信息来自其投资公司之一的文件披露。Ablecom 在 Compuware 中拥有 15%的股份。[12] [第 18 页]

Both Ablecom and Compuware are collocated with Super Micro’s facility in Taiwan.[13]
Ablecom 和 Compuware 均与台湾的 Super Micro 设施同址。[13]

The value of Super Micro’s purchases from Ablecom and Compuware is equal to ~7% of its total cost of sales over the last 3 years. [Pg. 43]
Super Micro 从 Ablecom 和 Compuware 的采购额相当于其过去 3 年总销售成本的约 7%。[第 43 页]

Super Micro’s filings warn “conflicts of interest may arise” with these entities stating:
超微公司的文件警告称，“可能产生利益冲突”，并指出：

“We may not negotiate or enforce contractual terms as aggressively with Ablecom or Compuware as we might with an unrelated party, and the commercial terms of our agreements may be less favorable than we might obtain in negotiations with third parties.”
“在与 Ablecom 或 Compuware 等关联方进行合同时，我们可能不会像对待无关第三方那样积极地谈判或执行合同条款，因此我们协议的商业条款可能不如与第三方谈判时有利。”

Circular Related Party Relationship: Super Micro Provides Components To Ablecom and Compuware, Who Simply Assemble Them And Sell Them Back To Super Micro
关联方关系循环：超微向联宝和康博提供组件，它们仅负责组装并将其回售给超微

Super Micro’s relationship with its family-owned related parties seems oddly circular.
超微与其家族拥有的关联方之间的关系似乎颇为循环往复。

In the case of Ablecom, Super Micro provides certain components Ablecom needs to make completed chassis for its servers. Ablecom then sells these components back to Super Micro, according to company filings. [Pg. 83]
在 Ablecom 的情况下，Super Micro 提供某些组件，Ablecom 需要这些组件来完成其服务器的机箱制造。根据公司文件，Ablecom 随后将这些组件回售给 Super Micro。[第 83 页]

Similarly with Compuware, Super Micro provides “most of the components” to Compuware for it to manufacture key components like motherboards. It then sells these back to Super Micro with a “value added” fee, per company filings. [Pg. 139] 
与 Compuware 类似，Super Micro 为其提供了“大部分组件”，以便 Compuware 制造如主板等关键部件。随后，Super Micro 以“增值”费用的形式回购这些组件，根据公司文件显示。[第 139 页]

Super Micro’s filings characterize the relationship mostly as contract manufacturing and outsourcing of chassis and power supplies:
超微的文件中将这种关系主要描述为合同制造和机箱及电源的委外生产：

“We work with Ablecom, one of our key contract manufacturers and also a related party, to optimize modular designs for our chassis and certain other components. We also outsource to Compuware, also a related party, a portion of our design activities and a significant part of the manufacturing of components, particularly power supplies.”
“我们与 Ablecom 合作，Ablecom 是我们的主要合同制造商之一，同时也是关联方，共同优化机箱及部分其他组件的模块化设计。同时，我们将一部分设计活动和大部分组件生产，尤其是电源供应器的制造，外包给关联方 Compuware。”

We find it mystifying that Super Micro, a company that boasts of having 6 million square feet of global manufacturing space, would outsource work it is capable of bringing in-house and for which it is supplying most of the components.
我们感到困惑的是，Super Micro 这家自诩拥有600 万平方英尺全球制造空间的公司，竟会将本有能力内部完成且大部分组件由其供应的工作外包出去。

Super Micro’s disclosures reveal little about the relationship, and Ablecom and Compuware´s financial reports are not publicly available. Therefore, it is impossible for investors to calculate whether Super Micro is paying a competitive rate for the services and products provided by the CEO´s brothers in Taiwan.
超微的披露信息对这一关系所涉甚少，而艾宝和康普威的财务报告并未公开。因此，投资者无法计算超微是否为其 CEO 在台湾的兄弟所提供的服务和产品支付了具有竞争力的价格。

One former Super Micro sales director said that he believed these entities were generating “free money” from the company:
一位前超微销售总监表示，他认为这些实体正从公司中赚取“不劳而获”的利润：

“I’ll be a little bit blunt. It’s free money, right? It’s free top line.”
“我会稍微直白一点说，这就是免费的钱，对吧？这是免费的顶线收入。”

Another former sales director, responsible for dealing with suppliers, told us they were prevented from buying certain parts elsewhere, like chassis, even when they were available domestically and they were “desperate to find alternative sources”.
另一位曾负责与供应商打交道的销售总监告诉我们，他们被禁止从其他渠道购买某些部件，如车架，即便这些部件在国内有货，且他们“迫切希望找到替代来源”。

Ablecom manufactured approximately 91.9% of the company’s chassis in 2023, per filings.
Ablecom 在 2023 年制造了该公司约 91.9%的机箱，根据申报文件显示。

“There were other manufacturers here domestically that had them but we were not allowed to necessarily go after them because we were getting a better deal with that *air quotes* through Charles’ family in Taiwan to do that.”
“在国内还有其他制造商也拥有这些产品，但我们不一定能去争取他们，因为我们通过台湾的查尔斯家族得到了一个更好的交易。”

Both Entities Appear To Work Almost Exclusively With Super Micro
两家实体似乎几乎只与超微合作

Export Records Show ~99.8% Of Ablecom´s Exports To The U.S. Since 2020 Were To Super Micro
出口记录显示，自 2020 年以来，Ablecom 对美国的出口中约 99.8%是流向超微公司。

Export Records Show ~99.7% Of Compuware´s Exports To The U.S. Since 2020 Were To Super Micro
出口记录显示，自 2020 年以来，Compuware 向美国的出口中约 99.7%是流向超微公司。

Usually if a supplier offers a true “value-add”, they would be in demand from a wide range of customers.
通常情况下，如果一个供应商能够提供真正的“增值”服务，他们就会受到来自广泛客户群体的青睐。

But both Ablecom and Compuware’s global export sales appear highly concentrated on Super Micro and the U.S., based on available import-export records via Tradesparq, which may not cover all import markets.
但根据 Tradesparq 提供的可获取进出口记录，Ablecom 和 Compuware 的全球出口销售似乎高度集中于 Super Micro 及美国市场，这些记录可能未涵盖所有进口市场。

Our analysis of those records shows that of Ablecom´s exports to the U.S., ~99.8% were to Super Micro between January 1^st, 2020, and June 30^th, 2024 (the end of Super Micro´s fiscal year).[14] [15]
我们对这些记录的分析显示，Ablecom 向美国的出口中，约 99.8%在 2020 年 1 月 1^日至 2024 年 6 月 30^日期间（即 Super Micro 财年结束时）流向了 Super Micro。[14][15]

Reflecting a similar pattern, in the same period, 99.7% of Compuware´s exports to the U.S. were to Super Micro, based on available Tradesparq data.[16]
反映出类似模式，在同一时期，根据可获得的 Tradesparq 数据，Compuware 向美国出口的 99.7%流向了 Super Micro。[16]

In short, these related party suppliers have almost no business in the U.S. – and apparently very little elsewhere in the world – apart from Super Micro, suggesting they were set up as extensions of the public company.
简而言之，这些关联方供应商在美国几乎没有业务——显然在世界其他地方也极少——除了超微公司，表明它们是作为上市公司的延伸而设立的。

A former engineer at Ablecom confirmed the conclusions we drew from trade data. They told us via written message:
一位 Ablecom 的前工程师证实了我们从贸易数据中得出的结论。他们通过书面信息告诉我们：

“Ablecom is a very special supplier of chassis and thermal module to SMC [Super Micro]…Ablecom has about 90% revenue comes from SMC [Super Micro].”
"Ablecom 是 SMC [超微] 非常特殊的机箱和散热模块供应商…Ablecom 约 90% 的营收来自 SMC [超微]。"

The engineer also indicated that Super Micro CEO Charles Liang was the person calling the shots at Ablecom and Compuware:
工程师还指出，超微 CEO 梁见后是艾宝和康博公司的决策者：

“SMC [Super Micro], Ablecom and Compuware have a regular operation meeting hosted by Charles Liang.”
"SMC [超微]、Ablecom 和 Compuware 定期举行由梁见后主持的运营会议。"

They said the operation meeting was held monthly and went on to explain that “Steve [Liang] and Bill [Liang] are in charge of chassis and PSU [power supply unit], respectively.”
他们表示，该运营会议每月举行一次，并进一步解释说“Steve [梁]和 Bill [梁]分别负责底盘和 PSU [电源单元]。”

Super Micro Says Its Liquid Cooling Will “Revolutionize The Industry” And Is Its “Competitive Edge”
超微称其液冷技术将“颠覆行业”并成为其“竞争优势”

But At A Recent Industry Conference, Super Micro Featured Related Party Ablecom’s Liquid Cooling Solutions, Per An Ablecom Engineer’s LinkedIn
但在最近的一次行业会议上，超微展示了关联公司艾比酷（Ablecom）的液冷解决方案，这一信息源自一位艾比酷工程师的领英（LinkedIn）资料

Super Micro Has Never Disclosed Related Party Involvement In Its Claimed Liquid Cooling Technology
超微从未披露其声称的液冷技术中涉及的关联方关系

Super Micro has told investors it has a “competitive edge” in liquid cooled solutions, per its CFO at the Barclays Global Technology Conference in December 2023. This idea of a competitive edge in liquid cooling has been echoed in sell-side reports, including reports issued by Barclays and JP Morgan.[17]
超微向投资者表示，其在液冷解决方案方面拥有“竞争优势”，这是其首席财务官在 2023 年 12 月的巴克莱全球科技大会上所述。关于液冷领域竞争优势的观点在卖方报告中得到了呼应，包括巴克莱和摩根大通发布的报告。[17]

Super Micro has also told investors that it wants to increase production capacity of its liquid cooling solutions, per its prospectus and Q2 2024 investor presentation. Super Micro’s CFO estimated that by June 2024, it will “have a rack capacity of 5,000 racks per month” and “liquid-cooled rack capacity of 2,000 racks per month”. (Q3 2024 earnings call)
超微还向投资者表示，根据其招股说明书和2024 年第二季度投资者演示文稿，希望提高其液冷解决方案的生产能力。超微的首席财务官估计，到2024 年 6 月，将达到“每月 5,000 个机架的产能”和“每月 2,000 个液冷机架的产能”。（2024 年第三季度财报电话会议）

CEO Charles Liang further stated on Super Micro’s Q2 2024 results call “we are beating the industry” on liquid cooling and in June 2024 suggested Super Micro would “revolutionize the industry”. [18]
CEO 梁见后在超微电脑 2024 财年第二季度业绩电话会议上进一步表示：“我们在液冷技术方面超越了整个行业”，并于 2024 年 6 月提出，超微电脑将“革新整个行业”。[18]

Given the claimed groundbreaking nature of the company’s technology, investors would want to know any related parties it was working with to “revolutionize the industry”.
鉴于该公司所宣称的技术突破性质，投资者会希望了解其在“革新行业”方面所合作的任何相关方。

On its relationship with Ablecom, its key related party supplier, Super Micro makes no mention of its designs or innovation in liquid cooling technology.[19]
在与关键关联方供应商 Ablecom 的关系方面，超微并未提及其在液冷技术设计或创新方面的内容。[19]

Yet patent and utility model records show that Ablecom has 2 patents for water cooling and 1 utility model, accepted between 2022-2024. [1, 2, 3]
然而，专利及实用新型记录显示，Ablecom 在 2022 至 2024 年间已受理 2 项水冷技术专利和 1 项实用新型。[1, 2, 3]

A former employee of Ablecom also stated that Super Micro was showcasing Ablecom’s liquid cooling solutions at the 2022 SuperComputing Conference in Dallas, per their LinkedIn.
Ablecom 的前员工还表示，Super Micro 在 2022 年达拉斯超级计算大会上展示了 Ablecom 的液冷解决方案，据其领英页面显示。

At another 2024 conference, Ablecom listed its “liquid cooling system” under its product offering.
在另一场 2024 年的会议上，Ablecom 在其产品系列中列出了“液冷系统”。

In short, Super Micro’s related party “contract manufacturer” to whom it outsources basic component manufacturing and assembly might also be designing its liquid-cooling solutions, which are being touted as proprietary.
简而言之，Super Micro 所关联的“合约制造商”，负责其基本组件的制造与组装，可能也在设计其宣称为专有的液冷解决方案。

As a matter of transparency, we think Super Micro should disclose the role of its related parties in the development of the product.
出于透明度考虑，我们认为超微公司应披露其关联方在产品开发中的角色。

Part III: Undisclosed Related Party Transactions
第三部分：未披露的关联方交易

Entity Records Show Super Micro CEO’s Youngest Brother, James Liang, Owns Two Taiwanese Entities That Also Make Server Components
企业记录显示，超微电脑 CEO 的弟弟梁见后拥有两家台湾企业，同样生产服务器组件

Both Operate Out Of The Super Micro Science And Technology Park But Super Micro Has Never Disclosed Any Related Party Transactions With These Entities
两家公司均位于超微科技园区内，但超微从未披露与这些实体的任何关联交易

In addition to Super Micro CEO Charles Liang’s two brothers mentioned above, which run the disclosed related parties named in the previous section, Liang’s third and youngest brother, James (Jianguo) Liang, also operates two Taiwan-based companies, per Taiwanese corporate records. These appear to be undisclosed suppliers of Super Micro.
除了上述超微电脑 CEO 梁见后(Charles Liang)的两兄弟外，前文披露的关联方中，梁见后的三弟、也是最小的弟弟梁建邦(James Jianguo Liang)，根据台湾公司记录，还经营着两家位于台湾的公司。这些公司似乎是超微电脑未公开披露的供应商。

James (Jianguo) Liang owns 85.7% of the shares of Aeon Lighting Technology, founded originally as an LED lighting manufacturer in 2007, per Taiwanese corporate records and one of the company´s associated websites.[20]
梁建國（James Liang）拥有光丽科技85.7%的股份，该公司于 2007 年最初作为一家 LED 照明制造商成立，根据台湾企业记录和公司其中一个相关网站的信息。[20]

He also owns 99% of Aeon Biotech (弘國生物科技股份有限公司 or “Hongguo Biotechnology Co.”), a company established in August 2020 originally to manufacture sterilization equipment during the coronavirus pandemic, per Taiwanese corporate records and its corporate website. [Pg. 3] [21]
他还拥有弘國生物科技股份有限公司（或称“Hongguo Biotechnology Co.”）99%的股份，该公司根据台湾企业记录及其官网显示，成立于 2020 年 8 月，最初旨在新冠疫情期间生产消毒设备。[第 3 页] [21]

In addition to producing LED lighting, Aeon Lighting Technology also produces computer components and, on another of its associated websites, specifically lists chassis manufacturing, rail sliders, cooling systems, power supplies and metal prototyping as its product offerings.
除了生产 LED 照明产品外，Aeon Lighting Technology 还生产计算机组件，并在其相关网站之一上专门列出了机箱制造、导轨滑块、冷却系统、电源以及金属原型制作作为其产品系列。

Its company brochure prominently displays a Super Micro branded workstation chassis. [Pg. 17]
其公司手册显著展示了超微品牌的工作站机箱。[第 17 页]

Its latest ‘news’ section contains a number of updates in which Aeon describes itself as “a leading global provider of artificial intelligence solutions” and also details launches of server cooling products, and a press release that announced strategic partnerships with unnamed server companies.
其最新的“新闻”版块包含多项更新，Aeon 在其中自称为“领先的人工智能解决方案全球提供商”，并详细介绍了服务器冷却产品的发布，以及宣布与未具名的服务器公司建立战略合作伙伴关系的新闻稿。

Not only is Aeon Lighting in the server business, like Super Micro, Compuware and Ablecom, it also operates from the same location.
Aeon Lighting 不仅像 Super Micro、Compuware 和 Ablecom 一样涉足服务器业务，而且同样位于同一地点运营。

Aeon’s website also lists a job posting for a production role, located at “No. 306, Chang’an Street, Bade District, Taoyuan City” in Taiwan, the same address as Ablecom and Compuware’s manufacturing facility, within the industrial campus it shares with Super Micro.[22] (See Appendix I)
Aeon 的网站上也列出了一个位于台湾“桃园市八德区长安街 306 号”的生产职位招聘信息，该地址与Ablecom和Compuware的制造工厂相同，均位于其与 Super Micro 共享的工业园区内。[22]（参见附录 I）

James Liang´s second company Aeon Biotech (also known in Chinese as “Hongguo Biotechnology Co.”) seems to have pivoted from sterilization equipment to the server business.[23]
詹姆斯·梁的第二家公司 Aeon Biotech（中文亦称“宏国生物科技股份有限公司”）似乎已从消毒设备业务转向服务器行业。[23] 

A profile on leading Taiwanese job listing website 104 states that Aeon Biotech is “providing the most complete AI server design, research and development, and sales”, per translations of the listing from  Chinese. 
台湾领先的招聘网站104 上的资料显示，Aeon Biotech 根据中文招聘信息的翻译，正在“提供最完整的 AI 服务器设计、研发和销售服务”。

The profile also states the company is located within the “Supermicro AI Technology Park”. At least 15 other Aeon Biotech listings for jobs ranging from “sheet metal business specialist” to “process assistant” show the same address. [1, 2, 3, 4 , 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15]
该简介还指出公司位于“超微人工智能科技园”内。至少有 15 个来自 Aeon Biotech 的招聘信息，职位从“钣金业务专家”到“流程助理”，均显示同一地址。[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15]

Former Employees Of Super Micro Said That Aeon Was A Supplier To Super Micro And Discussed Other Related Party Dealings
超微电脑前员工表示，Aeon 是其供应商，并讨论了其他关联方交易事宜

Super Micro makes no disclosure of related party transactions, products received, and the costs of said products with any Aeon entity in its public filings.
超微在其公开文件中未披露与永旺实体相关的关联方交易、所接收产品及这些产品的成本。

Despite the younger brother owning the vast majority of each entity, Ablecom´s website lists Aeon Lighting as part of the Ablecom Group without giving specific details of the relationship.
尽管弟弟拥有每个实体的绝大部分，Ablecom 的网站仍将 Aeon Lighting 列为Ablecom 集团的一部分，但并未详细说明两者之间的关系。

A former Super Micro employee, as well as media reports, indicate that Aeon is a supplier to Super Micro.
一位前超微员工以及媒体报道均指出，Aeon 是超微的供应商。

The translation of a 2024 interview stated that all three brothers “followed him [Charles Liang] into the electronics industry and became Supermicro’s supplier.” [24]
2024 年采访的翻译表明，三兄弟“追随他[梁见后]进入电子行业，并成为超微的供应商。”[24]

A former Super Micro sales director expressed that Aeon was part of Super Micro´s supply chain:
一位前超微销售总监表示，Aeon 是超微供应链的一部分：

Hindenburg Researcher: “Aeon…Don’t know if it rings any bells?”
兴登堡研究员：“Aeon…不知是否唤起你的记忆？”
Former Employee: “Yeah, that’s another one [supplier]”
前员工：“是的，那是另一个[供应商]”

Summarizing the situation, the former sales director told us that the circular nature of the related parties deserved to be scrutinized by investors:
总结情况时，前销售总监告诉我们，相关方之间的循环性质值得投资者仔细审查：

“If you’re really looking at this from a finance standpoint is, what is the money flowing from America into Taiwan and back out and where does that money park? [Are] their profit numbers really real or is he [Charles Liang] really profiting off of every segment within the chain? Which is what I think he’s doing.”
“如果你真的从财务角度审视这一现象，那么问题在于：资金从美国流入台湾再流出后，这些资金究竟流向何方？[这些]利润数字真的真实吗？还是他[梁见后]真的在产业链的每个环节都获利？我认为他正是这样做的。”

Suggesting that related party suppliers had been a perennial issue which had not been called into question, they said:
他们指出，关联方供应商一直是个未被质疑的长期问题，并提出建议：

“I mean, to be really honest with you, that’s always been a problem for 30 years. He’s had these suppliers. Nobody’s questioned it.”
“我的意思是，坦白讲，这个问题已经存在 30 年了。他一直有这些供应商，从没有人质疑过。”

Entity Records Also Show That Bill Liang, A Brother Of Super Micro’s CEO, Is A Director And Shareholder Of A Similarly Named Hong Kong And Taiwanese Entity, Called Ablestnet
实体记录还显示，超微公司 CEO 的兄弟 Bill Liang，是名为 Ablestnet 的香港及台湾同名实体的董事及股东

Ablestnet Appears To Resell Super Micro Products And Provide “Professional OEM Services”
Ablestnet 似乎在转售超微产品，并提供“专业 OEM 服务”

It Operates Out Of The Same Factory As The Related Party Compuware
它与关联方 Compuware 在同一工厂运营

Super Micro CEO Charles Liang’s other brother, Bill (Jianda) Liang, who runs a disclosed related party, Compuware, named in the previous part, is a shareholder and director of another Hong Kong entity called “Ablestnet Technology Limited”, per its 2023 Annual Return.[25]
超微 CEO 梁见后的另一位兄弟，Bill（简达）梁，经营着一家已披露的关联方公司——康普威，正如前文所述，根据其2023 年度报告，他是另一家名为“亚联科技有限公司”的香港实体的股东兼董事。[25]

Bill Liang is also the Chairman and 17% shareholder of another similarly-named entity in Taiwan called “Ablestnet Computer Inc” – which itself holds a 9.34% stake in Compuware, per shareholdings disclosed in filings by one of Compuware’s investee companies. [Pg. 18] [26]
梁先生亦是台湾另一家名称相似的实体“亚信电脑股份有限公司”的董事长及 17%股东，该实体自身持有 Compuware 公司 9.34%的股份，此持股比例源自 Compuware 某投资子公司披露的文件。[第 18 页] [26]

Both the Ablestnet Taiwan and Hong Kong entities appear to be undisclosed related-party suppliers or resellers for Super Micro.
Ablestnet 台湾和香港实体似乎是 Super Micro 未公开的关联方供应商或经销商。

A company profile for Ablestnet on a leading Taiwanese job site states that the company is providing “OEM services for electronic product assembly, testing, packaging and maintenance”, per the English translation. It also states the company has 100 employees. 
台湾领先求职网站上Ablestnet的公司简介显示，该公司提供“电子产品组装、测试、包装及维护的 OEM 服务”，根据英文翻译。同时，简介中还提到公司拥有 100 名员工。

Ablestnet products are displayed online at distributors like Server Bank which describes itself as a Chinese IT equipment distributor, per its website. The chassis used in many of these advertised Ablestnet products is identical to Super Micro. For example, the 3U Rackmount Server advertised even uses an identical stock image.
Ablestnet 产品在Server Bank等分销商的在线平台上展示，该分销商在其网站上自称为中国 IT 设备分销商。这些广告中的许多 Ablestnet 产品所使用的机箱与 Super Micro 完全相同。例如，所宣传的 3U 机架式服务器甚至使用了相同的库存图片。

Marketing material for Ablestnet also shows it is operating at the same building as the related party, Compuware, mentioned above. Both are located at No. 230 Liancheng Road, Zhonghe District, New Taipei City.
Ablestnet 的营销材料还显示，它与上述关联方Compuware在同一栋大楼内运营。两家公司均位于新北市中和区连城路 230 号。

Despite selling almost identical products, offering OEM services and being located at the site of a related party, Compuware, neither Ablestnet’s Taiwanese or Hong Kong entities are mentioned in Super Micro’s filings.
尽管销售几乎相同的产品，提供原始设备制造商服务，并位于关联方所在地，但无论是 Ablestnet 的台湾还是香港实体，都未在超微的文件中被提及。

In February 2024, Super Micro Made An Undisclosed Investment In Tech Startup Lambda Labs As Part Of Its $320 Million Funding Round
2024 年 2 月，超微电脑在 3.2 亿美元融资轮中对科技初创企业 Lambda Labs 进行了未公开的投资

Lambda’s CEO Publicly Claimed One Purpose Of Its Funding Was To Buy “Lots Of Nvidia GPUs”
Lambda 公司首席执行官公开宣称，其资金用途之一是购买“大量英伟达 GPU”

But A Former Lambda Leader Told Us “I’ve Never Heard Of Them [Lambda] Using Anyone Else But Super Micro”
但一位前 Lambda 领导者告诉我们：“我从未听说过 Lambda 使用过除超微之外的任何其他公司。”

 Lambda Labs is a tech company “known for selling physical computers which come with physical GPU cards”, according to Paperspace. In February 2024, the company raised a $320 million funding round, with Super Micro participating in the financing, per Bloomberg.
 Lambda Labs 是一家科技公司，“以其销售配备实体 GPU 卡的物理计算机而闻名”，根据Paperspace 的报道。2024 年 2 月，该公司成功完成了一轮 3.2 亿美元的融资，其中 Super Micro 参与了此次融资，据彭博社报道。

Super Micro’s financial statements contain no reference to any investment into Lambda Labs as part of the fund raising.[27] Lambda’s own announcement on the investment round made no reference to Super Micro either.
超微的财务报表中并未提及在资金筹集过程中对 Lambda Labs 的任何投资。[27] Lambda 自身关于投资轮次的公告也未提及超微。

Lambda COO Mitesh Agrawal told us via email that Bloomberg’s reporting is accurate but would not share the investment size.
Lambda 首席运营官Mitesh Agrawal通过电子邮件告诉我们，彭博社的报道是准确的，但不愿透露投资规模。

While announcing the fundraise, Lambda’s CEO, Stephen Balaban, said the company would need “lots of Nvidia GPUs” to accomplish its goal of becoming the “#1 AI compute platform in the world.”
在宣布融资时，Lambda 的 CEO 斯蒂芬·巴拉班表示，公司需要“大量英伟达 GPU”来实现其成为“全球第一 AI 计算平台”的目标。

As one former business head at Lambda told us, Super Micro was Lambda’s hardware backbone for these Nvidia GPUs:
正如 Lambda 的一位前业务主管向我们透露的那样，超微（Super Micro）是 Lambda 在 Nvidia GPU 方面的硬件支柱：

“I’ve never heard of them [Lambda] using anyone else but Super Micro.”
“我从未听说他们[Lambda]使用过除超微以外的其他品牌。”

Lambda’s support pages show the role of Super Micro hardware, listing user manuals for 10 Super Micro models, along with Gigabyte, a Taiwanese manufacturer.
Lambda 的支持页面展示了超微硬件的角色，列出了 10 款超微型号的用户手册，以及台湾制造商技嘉的相关信息。

Later, in June 2024, Super Micro announced a $600 million datacenter sublet arrangement with Lambda, the first public deal of its kind, per an industry media outlet that characterized it as “unusual”.
随后，在 2024 年 6 月，Super Micro宣布与 Lambda 达成了一项 6 亿美元的机房转租协议，这是同类中的首个公开交易，据一家行业媒体形容为“非同寻常”。

Super Micro CFO David Weigand gave no clear answer when questioned about the deal on an August 6^th, 2024, earnings call, saying:
超微公司 CFO 大卫·韦根在 2024 年 8 月 6^日的财报电话会议上，被问及该交易时未给出明确答复，仅表示：

“So we consider ourselves experts in datacenter solutions. And so this is really just one more facet of being a total provider.”
“因此，我们自视为数据中心解决方案的专家。而这实际上只是成为全方位服务提供商的又一个方面。”

In short, Lambda seems to have purchased hardware and datacenter space through Super Micro, without disclosure of the potential related party nature of the deal owing to a Super Micro investment.
简而言之，Lambda 似乎通过超微购买了硬件和数据中心空间，而未披露该交易可能存在关联方性质，原因在于超微的一项投资。

We think Super Micro should disclose any investment in Lambda and the details of any revenue arrangements between the two.
我们认为超微公司应当披露对 Lambda 的任何投资以及双方之间收入安排的详细信息。

On October 25^th, 2023 Two Related Parties Run By CEO Liang’s Brothers, One Of Them Partially Owned By Super Micro’s CEO, Reportedly Invested In Leadtek
2023 年 10 月 25^日，由 CEO 梁先生的两位兄弟经营的两家关联方，其中一家部分由超微 CEO 所有，据报道投资了丽台科技

Leadtek’s Website Advertises Server Products That Appear Identical To Super Micro’s Offerings, Indicating A Reseller Arrangement
丽台官网宣传的服务器产品与超微的产品如出一辙，表明存在经销商合作关系

Leadtek Research (2465 TT) is a listed small-cap Taiwanese company, which distributes and manufactures technology products, including servers, per its website and investor presentation. The company derives about 70-80% of its revenue from China, according to the company’s Chairman.
Leadtek Research (2465 TT) 是一家在台湾上市的市值较小的公司，根据其网站和投资者演示文稿，该公司从事技术产品的分销和制造，包括服务器。根据公司董事长的说法，该公司约 70-80%的收入来自中国。

Super Micro has made no reference to Leadtek in any of its financial statements or press releases.
超微在其任何财务报表或新闻稿中均未提及丽台。

On October 25^th, 2023,Compuware Technology, a related party of Super Micro, run by Charles Liang’s brother disclosed that it had “joined forces with Super Micro and Ablecom to invest in Leadtek”, per its English press release.
2023 年 10 月 25^日，由梁见后之兄弟经营的关联公司 Compuware Technology 宣布，根据其英文新闻稿，已与 Super Micro 及 Ablecom 联手投资 Leadtek。

The Super Micro investment apparently never happened. Instead, the related parties stepped into the role. Leadtek company documents show a private placement of NT 669 million (~$20 million) issued on November 21st, 2023. [Pgs. 12-13] The shares were issued to Compuware (33.3%) and Ablecom Technology (66.6%), run by two of Super Micro CEO’s brothers. Super Micro’s CEO also has a 10.5% stake in Ablecom along with his wife.
超微投资显然从未发生。相反，相关方接手了这一角色。丽台公司文件显示，2023 年 11 月 21 日发行了一笔 6.69 亿新台币（约 2000 万美元）的私募。[第 12-13 页] 这些股份由康柏威（33.3%）和艾宝科技（66.6%）认购，后者由超微 CEO 的两位兄弟经营。超微 CEO 与其妻子在艾宝科技中还持有10.5%的股份。

At an investor day in December 2023, Leadtek’s CEO said that Super Micro had apparently not invested because of U.S. regulation, but stressed the long-standing relationship with Super Micro. [28:30]
在 2023 年 12 月的投资者日上，Leadtek 的 CEO 表示，由于美国监管原因，Super Micro 似乎并未进行投资，但他强调了与 Super Micro 长期以来的合作关系。[28:30]

Ablecom and Compuware now own 19.85% and 9.93% of Leadtek, according to Leadtek corporate filings in April 2024. That makes Ablecom and Compuware the largest individual shareholders of the company as no other shareholder holds more than 5%, per Leadtek.
根据 2024 年 4 月丽台公司备案文件，Ablecom 和 Compuware 目前分别持有丽台 19.85%和 9.93%的股份。这使得 Ablecom 和 Compuware 成为该公司的最大个人股东，因为根据丽台的资料，没有其他股东持股超过 5%。

Both of Charles Liang’s brothers later took board seats at Leadtek, on December 27^th, 2023, per Leadtek filings. [Pg. 17]
查尔斯·梁的两兄弟随后在 2023 年 12 月 27^日加入了丽台的董事会，根据丽台的文件记载。[第 17 页]

Super Micro makes no reference to any transactions with Leadtek, despite advertising almost identical products, utilizing Super Micro parts on its website.[28] We reached out to Leadtek’s investor relations spokesperson, Michael Yang, to understand more about the relationship. He confirmed that Leadtek was using parts from Super Micro:
超微公司未提及与丽台的任何交易，尽管其网站上宣传的产品几乎完全相同，并使用了超微的零部件。[28]我们联系了丽台的投资者关系发言人 Michael Yang，以了解更多关于双方关系的信息。他确认丽台正在使用超微的零部件：

“We will take their [Super Micro’s] motherboard then take Ablecom’s case then Compuware’s power supply”. [Translation of Chinese]
“我们将采用超微的主板，然后配上立德的机箱以及康舒的电源。”

The Leadtek spokesperson went on to say there was even a “tacit understanding of cooperation” with Super Micro for an investment into Leadtek:
Leadtek 的发言人进一步表示，与 Super Micro 之间甚至存在着一种“默契的合作理解”，以促成对 Leadtek 的投资：

“The three brothers [Charles, Steve & Bill Liang], our Chairman knows them all. There is some tacit understanding of cooperation, so they hope to invest in Leadtek, because we have been working on it for a long time.” [Translation of Chinese]
“这三兄弟[Charles、Steve 与 Bill Liang]，我们的董事长都认识。彼此间存在一种默契的合作关系，因此他们希望投资 Leadtek，因为我们在这方面已经耕耘许久。”[中文翻译]

Given the circular nature of their relationship, the indirect ownership by Charles Liang andthe close ties to Super Micro, this appears to be a de facto, undisclosed related party.
鉴于他们关系的循环性质，以及梁见后对公司的间接所有权和与超微的紧密联系，这似乎是一个实际存在但未公开的关联方。

Part IV: Major Product Issues, Poor After-Sales Service, And Mounting Competition Are Driving Key Customers To Leave Super Micro
第四部分：主要产品问题、糟糕的售后服务以及日益激烈的竞争正促使关键客户离开超微

Competitive Threats Have Emerged From Large Technology Companies Like Dell, Putting Super Micro At Risk With Its Largest Customers
来自戴尔等大型科技公司的竞争威胁已经显现，这使得超微面临其最大客户的潜在风险

May 2024: “Nobody is Better At Building End-To-End Systems Of Very Large Scale For The Enterprise Than Dell.” – Jensen Huang, Nvidia CEO, Key Partner And Chip Supplier To Super Micro
2024 年 5 月：“在为企业构建大规模端到端系统方面，无人能及戴尔。” ——英伟达 CEO 黄仁勋，超微电脑的关键合作伙伴及芯片供应商

As with nearly all large-scale technology businesses, customer and partner referrals or recommendations are vital to driving revenue.
与几乎所有大规模科技企业一样，客户和合作伙伴的推荐或建议对于推动收入至关重要。

In Super Micro’s core U.S and European markets, which account for 71% of revenue, we found a slew of large, dissatisfied customers who had moved business away from Super Micro.
在超微的核心美国和欧洲市场，这些市场占其收入的71%，我们发现了一大批不满意的大客户，他们已将业务从超微转移出去。

At the same time, competitive threats have emerged from major technology companies like Dell who have a long track record in serving the enterprise market. As Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, Super Micro’s largest supplier and partner, said just months ago:
与此同时，来自戴尔等大型科技公司的竞争威胁已经显现，这些公司在服务企业市场方面拥有悠久的历史。正如英伟达（Nvidia）CEO 黄仁勋，同时也是超微（Super Micro）最大的供应商和合作伙伴，几个月前所说：

“Nobody is better at building end-to-end systems of very large scale for the enterprise than Dell.” (GTC Conference, March 2024, reported by Bloomberg)

Up until now, Super Micro’s early entry into the AI server market had given it an initial lead, but as a Lenovo executive we interviewed highlighted, late entrants (like Dell or Lenovo) are poised to take share:
迄今为止，超微较早进入 AI 服务器市场为其赢得了初步优势，然而正如我们采访的一位联想高管所强调的，后来者（如戴尔或联想）正准备抢占市场份额：

“Now that they’ve [Super Micro] got competition, I think what you’re seeing is the likely outcome of a lot of these deals that when customers have actual choice, they’re going to go to a company that’s going to actually provide proper support, proper service.”
“既然他们[超微]有了竞争，我认为你所看到的是这些交易可能的结果，当客户真正拥有选择权时，他们会倾向于选择一家能提供适当支持和优质服务的公司。”

As a result, its pricing power has deteriorated. In the most recent Q4 2024, Super Micro increased revenue by 38% quarter over quarter, but its cost of goods sold increased by 45% over the same period. This indicates that despite a rapid increase in demand, Super Micro was unable to pass the costs on to its customers.[29] [1,2,3,4,5]
因此，其定价能力已有所下降。在最近的 2024 年第四季度，Super Micro 的收入环比增长了 38%，但其销售成本却同期间增长了 45%。这表明尽管需求迅速增长，Super Micro 却未能将成本转嫁给客户。[29] [1,2,3,4,5]

#1 Customer: Super Micro’s Largest Customer Over The Last Year Is CoreWeave, Per Bloomberg Intelligence
#1 客户：据彭博智库报道，超微电脑过去一年最大的客户是 CoreWeave

In December 2023, Dell Announced A Deal From CoreWeave For “Thousands” Of GPU Servers, Potentially Worth Over $1 Billion
2023 年 12 月，戴尔宣布从 CoreWeave 获得“数千台”GPU 服务器订单，潜在价值超过 10 亿美元

CoreWeave is a cloud infrastructure startup, backed by Nvidia, that offers high performance computing/GPU solutions that customers can rent.
CoreWeave 是一家由 Nvidia 支持的云基础设施初创公司，提供高性能计算/GPU 解决方案，客户可以租用。

Over the past year to Q3 2024, CoreWeave has been Super Micro’s largest customer, accounting for approximately 22% of revenue or around $2.6 billion, per Bloomberg Intelligence.
在过去一年至 2024 年第三季度期间，CoreWeave 已成为 Super Micro 的最大客户，占其营收约 22%，即大约 26 亿美元，根据彭博智库的数据。

In December 2023, Dell for the first time announced an AI deal with CoreWeave, in which CoreWeave had agreed to purchase “thousands of servers” to help organizations with AI workloads.
2023 年 12 月，戴尔首次宣布与 CoreWeave 达成人工智能合作协议，其中 CoreWeave 同意购买“数千台服务器”，以协助各组织处理人工智能工作负载。

As a result, it appears Super Micro has lost share with one of its largest accounts.
因此，超微公司似乎已失去其最大客户之一的份额。

#2 Customer: In September 2023, Super Micro Was The Exclusive Server Supplier to Tesla, Per Barclays Research
#2 客户：根据巴克莱研究，2023 年 9 月，超微是特斯拉的独家服务器供应商

Recent Reports In May 2024 Show Dell Has Now Won Major Deals From Tesla, Eroding Super Micro’s Exclusivity
2024 年 5 月最新报告显示，戴尔现已赢得特斯拉的重要合同，削弱了超微的独家供应地位

Elon Musk Has Said xAI Will Be Splitting Business Between The Two Companies, Further Suggesting A Loss Of Exclusivity With Musk Entities
埃隆·马斯克表示，xAI 将在两家公司之间分配业务，这进一步暗示了与马斯克实体的独家合作关系将有所减弱

Tesla, like CoreWeave, is one of Super Micro’s largest customers.[30] In September 2023, Barclays research suggested that Super Micro had an exclusive relationship with Tesla for AI servers.
特斯拉，与 CoreWeave 类似，是 Super Micro 的最大客户之一。[30] 2023 年 9 月，巴克莱研究指出，Super Micro 与特斯拉建立了专为 AI 服务器服务的独家合作关系。

Eight months later, in May 2024, media reports, citing an Evercore Research report stated that “Dell has won a large portion of business for Tesla’s (TSLA) AI Server buildout” and allocations are “heavily skewing” towards Dell, effectively eroding Super Micro’s exclusivity with Tesla.
八个月后，即 2024 年 5 月，媒体报道援引 Evercore 研究报告称，“戴尔已赢得特斯拉（TSLA）AI 服务器扩建项目的大部分业务”，且配额“严重偏向”戴尔，此举实际上削弱了超微与特斯拉的独家合作关系。

Separately, Elon Musk announced through a series of posts on ‘X’ that his startup xAI would also be splitting its business 50/50 between Dell and Super Micro. [1,2]
此外，埃隆·马斯克通过一系列“X”平台的帖子宣布，他的初创公司 xAI 也将其业务以 50/50 的比例分拆给戴尔和超微。[1,2]

#3 Customer: Super Micro Has Told Investors That It Is “Under-Indexed” (i.e., Does Less Business) With The World’s Largest Technology Companies Called “Hyper Scalers”
#3 客户：超微已告知投资者，与被称为“超大规模企业”的全球最大科技公司相比，其业务“占比偏低”（即业务量较少）。

What It Hasn’t Mentioned: Its Failed Relationship With Amazon
未提及的内容：与亚马逊的失败关系

“They Were The First Partner To AWS. A Lot Of People Don’t Know That They Were Building The AWS Clusters Until He [Charles Liang] Pissed Off Jeff Bezos And Deliveries Didn’t Go And They Got Thrown Out Of There…” – Former Super Micro Sales Director
“他们是 AWS 的首个合作伙伴。许多人不知道，直到他[Charles Liang]惹恼了 Jeff Bezos，导致交付中断，他们才被赶了出来，此前一直在构建 AWS 集群……”——前超微销售总监

Amazon AWS is not only one of the largest cloud providers in the world, but is also one of the largest buyers of advanced Nvidia chips and providers of high performance/AI related services. In 2023, it was estimated that Amazon was tied for 3^rd largest purchaser of H100/H800 chips from Nvidia, per The Information, a technology focused business publication.
Amazon AWS 不仅是全球最大的云服务提供商之一，也是高级 Nvidia 芯片的最大买家之一，以及高性能/AI 相关服务的主要提供者。据 2023 年估计，亚马逊与 Nvidia 的 H100/H800 芯片采购量并列第³位，来源为专注于技术的商业出版物The Information。

In January 2024, Super Micro’s Vice President of Corporate Development, Michael Staiger, told investors that Super Micro was “under-indexed” (meaning it does less business) with hyper-scale customers, or large cloud service providers such as AWS, Microsoft and Google.
2024 年 1 月，超微的企业发展副总裁 Michael Staiger 向投资者透露，超微在超大规模客户（如 AWS、微软和谷歌等大型云服务提供商）方面的业务“占比不足”（即业务量较少）。

Former employees we interviewed told us that Super Micro’s early relationship with AWS for high performance clusters had soured. One sales director told us:
我们采访的前员工透露，Super Micro 与 AWS 在早期高性能集群方面的合作关系已经恶化。一位销售总监告诉我们：

“They were the first partner to AWS. A lot of people don’t know that they were building the AWS clusters until he [Charles Liang] pissed off Jeff Bezos and deliveries didn’t go and they got thrown out of there, but they were the entry customer.”
“他们是 AWS 的首个合作伙伴。许多人不知道，他们曾负责构建 AWS 集群，直到他（Charles Liang）激怒了 Jeff Bezos，导致交付中断，最终被扫地出门，但他们确实是首批客户。”

Another senior salesperson added:
另一位资深销售人员补充道：

“[AWS] was definitely one of their early, larger rack scale opportunities. That was pretty massive, I believe. And they just saw it because, largely because Super Micro was in the infancy of that business, but also because they just don’t have processes and controls to have root, they don’t have a root cause corrective action process to continually make things better. They just don’t.”
“[AWS]无疑是他们早期较大的机架规模机遇之一。我认为那相当庞大。他们之所以能发现这一点，主要是因为超微当时正处于该业务的起步阶段，同时也因为他们缺乏必要的流程和控制来从根本上解决问题，没有根因纠正行动流程来持续改进。他们确实没有这些。”

Finally, a third business development director added:
最后，第三位业务发展总监补充道：

“Let me just say that particular account [AWS], you know, was not a good example or actually it was a very good example of what not to do.”
“让我直言，那个特定的账户（AWS），你知道，并不是一个好例子，实际上是一个非常好的反面教材。” 

#4 Customer: In 2023, Digital Ocean, A US Cloud Service Provider, Moved Away From Super Micro To Dell After Service Issues, According To A Current Employee Of Digital Ocean

“That Was A Train Wreck Of Sorts. They [Super Micro] Had Pretty Bad Reliability And You Just Couldn’t Pinpoint Like What Was Going On. Something Keeps Going Wrong,” They Told Us
#4 客户：2023 年，美国云服务提供商 Digital Ocean 在遭遇服务问题后，据一位现任员工透露，从 Super Micro 转向了 Dell。“那简直就是一场灾难。他们[Super Micro]的可靠性相当糟糕，你根本无法确定问题出在哪里。总是有东西出错，”他们告诉我们。

Digital Ocean is an American cloud service provider, headquartered in New York.
Digital Ocean 是一家美国云服务提供商，总部位于纽约。

Initially we were told that Digital Ocean had made a small test order from Super Micro around 2023, with a view to ordering 100 servers, per a current leader at the firm.
最初我们被告知，Digital Ocean 于 2023 年左右向 Super Micro 下了一个小规模测试订单，意在订购 100 台服务器，这是根据公司现任领导的说法。

“What could be given because our actual order is we are talking about [a] hundred. So the ten is just the first.”
“既然我们实际的顺序是关于一百，那么十只是第一个。”

Commenting on the experience, the Digital Ocean leader told us:
在谈及这段经历时，Digital Ocean 的负责人告诉我们：

“That was a train wreck of sorts. They [Super Micro] had pretty bad reliability and you just couldn’t pinpoint like what was going on. Something keeps going wrong. Took a long time and, as you can imagine, a lot of frustration on many sides.”
“那简直就是一场火车事故。他们[超微]的可靠性相当糟糕，你根本无法准确指出问题所在。总是出问题。花了很长时间，可以想象，各方都感到非常沮丧。”

In the end, after service issues, Digital Ocean switched the larger part of its order to Dell:
最终，在服务问题解决后，Digital Ocean 将其大部分订单转向了戴尔：

“They [Dell] figured out that this is an opportunity and 90% of the [total server] order has not been done yet.…We definitely found that Dell was a way more willing partner in terms of ‘we will make sure you get the service delivered.’”
“他们（戴尔）意识到这是一个机遇，90%的服务器订单尚未完成。……我们确实发现，戴尔在确保服务交付方面是一个更加积极的合作伙伴。”

In short, Super Micro seems to have lost a large deal on the back of poor after-sales service.
简而言之，超微公司似乎因糟糕的售后服务而损失了一大笔交易。

#5 Customer: Super Micro Lists Its 2023 Deal With Genesis Cloud As A “Success Story” On Its Website

Current And Former Genesis Employees: “Catastrophic. It Is, On The Technical Side, One Of My Worst Experiences I’ve Had…In The Industry.”

“On The Whole We Had About A 10% Failure Rate And That Was Down At A Hardware Level And A Firmware Level Issue.”
#5 客户：超微公司在其网站上将 2023 年与创世纪云的合作列为“成功案例”。现任与前任创世纪员工：“灾难性的。从技术角度来看，这是我行业经历中最糟糕的一次……整体而言，我们的失败率约为 10%，问题出在硬件层面和固件层面。”

Genesis Cloud is one of Europe’s largest GPU Cloud providers, per our conversations with industry experts, and is described as a “leader in offering high performance servers”, by Super Micro.[31]
Genesis Cloud 根据我们与行业专家的交流，是欧洲最大的 GPU 云服务提供商之一，并被 Super Micro描述为“提供高性能服务器的领导者”。[31]

Super Micro declares its 2023 deal with Genesis a “success story” according to its website. As part of the deal, Super Micro says it provided its systems to run both Intel processors and Nvidia GPUs.[32]
超微公司在其官网上宣称，与创世公司 2023 年的合作堪称“成功案例”。作为合作的一部分，超微表示其系统已支持运行英特尔处理器及英伟达 GPU。[32]

When we asked one former employee their experience of the Super Micro deal, they said:
当我们询问一位前员工关于超微合作经历时，他们表示：

“Catastrophic. It is, on the technical side, one of my worst experiences I’ve had…in the industry.”
“灾难性的。从技术角度来看，这是我在这个行业中经历过的最糟糕的一次……”

A current employee explained the issues with the Super Micro servers Genesis bought:
一位现任员工解释了创世纪公司购买的超级微型服务器所存在的问题：

“We had about a 10% failure rate and that was down at a hardware level and a firmware level issue.”
“我们的故障率大约为 10%，这是由于硬件层面和固件层面的问题导致的。”

On the firmware side, they added:
在固件方面，他们增加了：

“We encountered a bug that nearly lost us a customer that had been known for about nine months that simply wasn’t communicated to us [by Super Micro]…”
“我们遇到了一个漏洞，差点失去了一位已相识约九个月的客户，而这一问题[超微公司]并未向我们传达……”

When asked on the way forward:
当被问及前进的道路：

“We are evaluating Dell and Lenovo specifically. Those are two that we’re absolutely evaluating”.
“我们正在专门评估戴尔和联想。这两家是我们绝对在评估的。”

We estimate Genesis could potentially be one of Super Micro’s largest European deals. Far from being a “success story”, it appears to be a deal riddled with issues.[33]
我们估计 Genesis 可能成为超微在欧洲的最大交易之一。这远非一个“成功故事”，反而似乎是一笔充满问题的交易。[33]

#6 Customer: GMI Cloud Is A GPU Cloud Provider, Founded In 2023, “Serving Top AI Customers In US and Asia”
#6 客户：GMI Cloud 是一家 GPU 云服务提供商，成立于 2023 年，“服务于美国及亚洲顶尖 AI 客户”

An Employee At GMI Cloud Cited A Problem Rate Of 17.5% On Its Orders Of 256 Servers From Super Micro 
GMI 云的一名员工指出，从超微公司订购的 256 台服务器中，问题率达到了 17.5%。

GMI Is Now Moving Away From Super Micro To HPE, Less Than A Year After Its First Order, Per The Employee
GMI 正在从超微转向慧与，距其首次下单尚不足一年，据员工透露

GMI Cloud is an Asia and US focused cloud provider startup, “serving top AI customers in US and Asia” per the founder and CEO’s LinkedIn. The company was founded in 2023 and discloses Super Micro as its GPU server partner on its website.
GMI Cloud 是一家专注于亚洲和美国市场的云服务提供商初创企业，其创始人兼 CEO 在LinkedIn上表示，“服务于美国和亚洲的顶级 AI 客户”。该公司成立于2023年，并在其官网上披露了与 Super Micro 作为其GPU 服务器合作伙伴的信息。

We spoke to a current employee who told us that while Super Micro had a lower cost per unit than competitors like Dell and HP, there were many problems along the way:
我们采访了一位现任员工，他告诉我们，尽管超微的单台成本低于戴尔和惠普等竞争对手，但过程中存在许多问题：

“I think what you’re not calculating is all the soft costs that you have for having to kind of go through, your cost savings of what you think you’re getting quickly becomes a deficit when you have all these problems that come up and time to revenue because, you know, obviously we can’t bill clients when they can only use six out of eight [GPU] cards in a box.”
“我认为您未计算的是，在必须经历的过程中所产生的所有隐性成本，您预期的成本节约，一旦遇到这些层出不穷的问题以及因收入时间延误，很快就会变成赤字，因为显然，当客户只能使用一个盒子中的六张而非八张 GPU 卡时，我们是无法向他们收费的。”

Out of a total order of ~256 GPU servers from Super Micro, estimated to cost $60-80 million, they told us the problem rate was around 17.5%: [34]
在来自 Super Micro 的约 256 台 GPU 服务器总订单中，预计成本为 60-80 百万美元，他们告诉我们问题率约为 17.5%：[34]

“Out of the 256, I’d say 45 servers out of the 256 had issues.”
“在 256 台服务器中，我估计其中 45 台存在问题。”

They further went on to say even more basic parts like the Network Interface Controller (NIC) had failures right out the box:
他们进一步指出，甚至连网络接口控制器（NIC）这样更基础的部件，在开箱时就出现了故障：

“In the last six months, probably like 13 servers had NIC card problems, right out of the thing.”
“在过去六个月里，大概有 13 台服务器出现了网卡问题，直接就那样。”

As a result of the issues and time to resolution, they said GMI was moving away from Super Micro:
由于这些问题及其解决所需的时间，他们表示 GMI 正逐渐远离超微公司

“Our next two orders that we placed in the US are with HPE.”
“我们在美国接下来的两个订单都是与 HPE 合作的。”

#7 Customer: In October 2023, NexGen Cloud, A Nvidia Partner, Disclosed It Was Investing $1 Billion To Build An AI Super Cloud In Europe With Over 20,000 Nvidia GPUs

A NexGen Employee Told Us That Sometimes Up To Half Of Super Micro Orders Had Firmware Issues
#7 客户：2023 年 10 月，英伟达合作伙伴 NexGen Cloud 宣布将投资 10 亿美元在欧洲建设一个拥有超过 20,000 块英伟达 GPU 的人工智能超级云

一位 NexGen 员工向我们透露，有时高达一半的超微订单存在固件问题

NexGen Cloud is a UK based European leader in sustainable AI cloud infrastructure, per its website. In September 2023, it confirmed it will “invest $1 billion to build its AI Supercloud in Europe”, which would “eventually consist of more than 20,000 NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs”, per Capacity, a technology publication.
NexGen Cloud 是一家总部位于英国的欧洲可持续 AI 云基础设施领导者，根据其网站介绍。2023 年 9 月，该公司确认将“投资 10 亿美元在欧洲建设其 AI 超级云”，该超级云“最终将包含超过 20,000 个 NVIDIA H100 张量核心 GPU”，据科技出版物Capacity报道。

Up until recently, the company had used a mix of Asus, Super Micro, and Dell servers for GPU compute, per a NexGen Cloud employee.
直到最近，该公司一直采用华硕、超微和戴尔服务器的组合来进行 GPU 计算，这是 NexGen Cloud 公司的一名员工透露的。

The employee explained that firmware was a constant issue with Super Micro servers and support around this was “challenging”:
员工解释说，固件问题是超微服务器的一个持续性难题，围绕此问题的支持工作“颇具挑战性”：

“The more challenging thing is firmware related issues. I can’t go and find a support document with a firmware matrix that says this is the compatible versions, which is exactly what you get from Dell or HP or even Gigabyte…Whereas Super Micro you just kind of send it off and it comes back in Chinese”
“更具挑战性的是与固件相关的问题。我无法找到一个带有固件矩阵的支持文档，明确指出哪些版本是兼容的，这正是从戴尔、惠普甚至技嘉获得的便利…而超微（Super Micro）则不同，你只能将问题提交，然后收到一份中文回复。”

Illustrating this practically, on initial orders, they explained that half of the machines in an order might have mismatched or wrong firmware:
实际演示这一点，在最初订单中，他们解释说，订单中一半的机器可能存在固件不匹配或错误的问题：

“And out of the 20 machines we’d received from Super Micro, ten of them might have the right firmware, and ten of them might have the wrong firmware. Or ten NICs [Network Cards] would have a different firmware to the other one, which would manifest this weird slow booting thing or whatever.”
“在我们从超微公司收到的 20 台机器中，可能有 10 台安装了正确的固件，而另外 10 台则可能安装了错误的固件。或者，10 张网卡的固件与另外的有所不同，这会导致奇怪的缓慢启动现象或其他问题。”

The employee said, after this experience, that they were trying to push all business to what they called “tier 1 providers” like HP and Dell.
员工表示，经过这次经历，他们正试图将所有业务推向他们所谓的“一级供应商”，如惠普和戴尔。

Hindenburg Researcher: “Then why wouldn’t you just push everything into the tier ones like HP and Dell?“
兴登堡研究员：“那么为什么不直接将所有资源投入到惠普和戴尔这样的第一梯队品牌中呢？”

NexGen Employee: “Yeah, exactly.“
NexGen 员工：“是的，完全正确。”

Hindenburg Researcher: “You mean you would basically?“
兴登堡研究员：“你的意思是你基本上会？“

NexGen Employee: “Yeah, I would, yeah. I very much drive that internally.“
NexGen 员工： “是的，我会的，是的。我在内部非常积极推动这一点。”

Ten Former Employees Confirmed That After-Sales Services Was Harming Super Micro’s Ability To Retain Customers

“It’s Their Achilles Heel. It´s Just Horrible. Salespeople Hated To Sell Any Of Their On-Site Services.” – Senior Sales Director
十名前员工证实，售后服务正在损害超微公司保留客户的能力，“这是他们的阿喀琉斯之踵，简直糟透了。销售人员都不愿意推销他们的现场服务。”——高级销售总监

On Super Micro’s Q2 2020 earnings call, when asked how large its global support staff was, management didn’t share a number.
在超微公司2020 年第二季度财报电话会议上，当被问及其全球支持团队规模时，管理层并未透露具体数字。

Throughout our conversations with customers, distributors and former Super Micro employees, it became clear that after-sales support and service was vital for many startup and enterprise customers, given the complexity of workloads they were running.
在与客户、分销商及前超微员工的多番交流中，我们逐渐明确，鉴于所运行工作负载的复杂性，售后服务与支持对于众多初创企业及大型企业客户而言至关重要。

However, at least 10 former Super Micro employees told us that Super Micro was consistently let down by its after sales and support. As one senior salesperson concluded:
然而，至少有 10 位前超微员工向我们透露，超微在售后服务与支持方面一直令人失望。正如一位资深销售人员所总结的：

“It’s their Achilles heel. It´s just horrible. Salespeople hated to sell any of their on-site services. The service salespeople hated to sell any of their support. Just awful. It always came back to bite them just in terms of if they sold a certain SLA, service level agreement. Super Micro would never meet it.”
“这是他们的致命弱点。简直糟糕透顶。销售人员讨厌推销他们的任何现场服务。服务销售人员也不愿意销售他们的支持服务。非常糟糕。每当他们销售某个服务级别协议（SLA）时，问题就会回来困扰他们。超微公司（Super Micro）从未能满足这些协议。”

One sales director who left around 2021 told us the services team was small relative to the type of business it was supposed to support:
一位大约在 2021 年离职的销售总监告诉我们，服务团队相对于其应支持的业务类型而言规模较小：

“Their service center sucks. They’re terrible. I mean, the whole of the post support service team. This is for a company that does 5.5 billion in a quarter, right? The whole of the post-support team is 20 people in the US.”
“他们的服务中心太糟糕了。简直糟糕透顶。我是说，整个售后支持团队。这是一家季度营收 55 亿美元的公司，对吧？整个美国地区的售后团队才 20 人。”

A CTO of a Super Micro customer in Europe told us on their experience in 2023 and 2024:
一位欧洲超级微客户的首席技术官向我们讲述了他们在 2023 年和 2024 年的经历：

“It’s basically devolved down to the stage where Super Micro effectively have, I would say, one field engineer or specialist for GPU servers in all of EMEA. That’s the insane thing. He’s got one other guy helping him though, but he effectively at that point in time was a one man show.”
“基本上，情况已经演变成在 EMEA 地区，超微公司实际上只有一位负责 GPU 服务器领域的工程师或专家。这真是不可思议。尽管他还有另一个人协助，但在当时，他基本上是单枪匹马。”

Part V: Evading Sanctions And Export Restrictions
第五部分：规避制裁与出口限制

Background: In 2006, Super Micro Pleaded Guilty To A Felony Count Of Export Ban Evasion
背景：2006 年，超微公司承认犯有逃避出口禁令的重罪

Its Current CEO Told The New York Times In 2008: “We Were A New Company And Didn’t Know Every Regulation. Now, We Are Well Trained And Watch Over This 24 Hours A Day.”
其现任首席执行官在 2008 年告诉《纽约时报》：“我们是一家新公司，并不熟悉所有法规。如今，我们已接受充分培训，全天候 24 小时监督这一切。”

In 2006, before Super Micro was listed, it pleaded guilty to one felony count of exporting computer components to Iran in 2001 and 2002 in violation of U.S. export bans. It was fined $150,000.
2006 年，在超微（Super Micro）上市之前，该公司承认了一项重罪指控，即在 2001 年和 2002 年违反美国出口禁令向伊朗出口计算机组件。为此，超微被罚款 15 万美元。

CEO Charles Liang was quoted by the New York Times blaming the crime on inexperience:
CEO 李良（Charles Liang）被《纽约时报》引用，将罪行归咎于经验不足：

“We were a new company and didn’t know every regulation. Now, we are well trained and watch over this 24 hours a day.”
“我们是一家新公司，对每项规定并不熟悉。如今，我们已接受了充分培训，全天候 24 小时严密监控。”

Based on our analysis of import-export records and other source material, strategic Super Micro components may once again be evading U.S. export restrictions.
根据我们对进出口记录及其他来源资料的分析，战略性的超微组件可能再次规避了美国的出口限制。

Super Micro publishes an export control policy on its website but, as of mid-August 2024, had not updated the document since 2020 despite fast-changing regulations. It includes neither Russia nor China in the list of countries currently under U.S. sanctions or heightened scrutiny.[35]
Super Micro 在其网站上发布了一份出口管制政策，但截至 2024 年 8 月中旬，该文件自 2020 年以来未进行更新，尽管法规变化迅速。其中既未将俄罗斯也未将中国列入目前受美国制裁或加强审查的国家名单中。[35]

The policy recognizes that “non-compliance with U.S. export control laws may result in substantial administrative, civil and criminal penalties against Supermicro and/or individual employees.”
该政策认识到，“违反美国出口管制法律可能导致对超微公司和/或个别员工施以重大的行政、民事及刑事处罚。”

The policy also states its employees will receive export compliance training and that Super Micro will perform “red flag screening” on its clients and training about potential export restrictions.
该政策还规定，其员工将接受出口合规培训，并且超微将对其客户进行“红旗筛查”，以及关于潜在出口限制的培训。

We do not believe that Super Micro adequately performed its own internal screening procedures, let alone others required by U.S. government agencies.
我们不认为超微公司充分执行了其自身的内部筛查程序，更不用说美国政府机构要求的其他程序了。

The U.S. Has Imposed Stringent Controls And Bans On Exports To Russia Of High-Performance Computers And Components Since The Invasion Of Ukraine
自乌克兰被入侵以来，美国已对向俄罗斯出口高性能计算机及组件实施了严格的控制和禁令。

Super Micro Says It Has “Not Recorded Revenue” From Russia Since The Day Before The War Started
超微公司表示，自战事开始前一天起，尚未从俄罗斯记录到任何收入

But Super Micro Exports To Russia Have Spiked More Than 3x Since The Invasion Of Ukraine In Apparent Contravention Of The Bans
但自乌克兰被入侵以来，超微向俄罗斯的出口激增超过 3 倍，明显违反了禁令

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24^th, 2022, the U.S has imposed increasingly stringent export controls on U.S. goods and technology, including foreign items produced with U.S. know-how and machinery, in an effort to undermine Russia´s “aggressive military capabilities”.[36]
自 2022 年 2 月 24^日俄罗斯入侵乌克兰以来，美国对美国商品和技术实施了日益严格的出口管制，包括使用美国技术和机械生产的外国产品，旨在削弱俄罗斯的“侵略性军事能力”。[36]

Export restrictions are mandated by U.S. Export Administration Regulations (EAR) which include a Commerce Control List (CCL) of approximately 3,000 items that currently require an export license, including computers, computer assemblies, chips, switching devices, electronic components and microprocessors.[37]
出口限制由美国《出口管理条例》（EAR）规定，其中包括约 3000 项物品的《商业管制清单》（CCL），目前这些物品需要出口许可证，包括计算机、计算机组件、芯片、开关设备、电子元件和微处理器。[37]

Regulations indicate that applications to export most components on that list to Russia will generally be denied – effectively establishing an export ban. [Section 746.5]
规定表明，向俄罗斯出口该清单上大多数组件的申请通常会被拒绝——实际上确立了一项出口禁令。[第 746.5 节]

Super Micro has disclosed that its products are subject to U.S. trade bans and said it had entirely halted sales to Russia and had not recorded revenue from Russia since February 23, 2023 – the day prior to the invasion.[38]
超微公司披露其产品受到美国贸易禁令限制，并表示已于 2023 年 2 月 23 日，即入侵前一天，全面停止向俄罗斯销售，且自该日起未再从俄罗斯录得收入。[38]

But Super Micro products have been shipped to Russia in larger-than-ever volumes since the invasion of Ukraine, based on our analysis of more than 45,000 import and export transactions provided by trade aggregator Tradesparq.[39] [40]
但自乌克兰被入侵以来，根据贸易聚合商 Tradesparq 提供的超过 45,000 笔进出口交易分析，超微产品以空前规模运往俄罗斯。[39][40]

U.S. government agencies, including the Department of Commerce´s Bureau of Industry and Security, have issued repeated warnings about red flags indicating controlled goods may be getting illicitly diverted to Russia.[41] [42]
美国政府机构，包括商务部工业和安全局，已多次发出警告，指出有红旗标志显示受控货物可能被非法转运至俄罗斯。[41][42]

Prior to the war, between January 1^st, 2020, and February 23^rd, 2022 – the last date Super Micro said it booked revenue for Russia sales – $60.7 million of Super Micro products were exported to Russia either directly by Super Micro or by third-party exporters, per available Tradesparq data.[43]
战前，即 2020 年 1 月 1^日至 2022 年 2 月 23^日——超微公司称其为对俄销售确认收入的最后日期——根据可获得的 Tradesparq 数据，超微公司或第三方出口商直接向俄罗斯出口了价值 6070 万美元的超微产品。[43]

After the invasion of Ukraine, between February 24^th, 2022, and to June 30^th, 2024- the end of Super Micro’s fiscal year – the export of Super Micro products to Russia spiked. Approximately $210 million of Super Micro products were shipped to Russia in that period – in apparent contravention of U.S. export bans – per Tradesparq.
乌克兰被入侵后，从 2022 年 2 月 24^日至 2024 年 6 月 30^日——超微公司财年结束——超微产品对俄罗斯的出口激增。根据 Tradesparq 的数据，在此期间，大约有 2.1 亿美元的超微产品运往俄罗斯，这明显违反了美国的出口禁令。

Super Micro appears to have ceased direct exports, as disclosed. However, 10 third-party exporters handled two-thirds of the shipments to Russia and more than 220 other entities – 3x more than pre-invasion – handled the remainder, per Tradesparq. The largest exporters were based in Turkey, China and the UAE – all transshipment countries identified by the U.S. government.[44]
超微似乎已停止直接出口，如所披露。然而，根据 Tradesparq 的数据，10 家第三方出口商处理了运往俄罗斯及超过 220 个其他实体的货物中的三分之二，而这些实体数量在战前是现在的三倍，其余货物则由这些第三方处理。最大的出口商位于土耳其、中国和阿联酋，这些国家均被美国政府列为转运国。[44]

The export values are based on declared customs value. The actual revenue generated for Super Micro or intermediaries may have been multiples higher, given that technology prices in Russia are being boosted by scarcity amid heavy sanctions and price gouging via black-market supply routes, per NATO.[45]
出口价值基于申报的海关价值。考虑到技术在俄罗斯因严重制裁、通过黑市供应路线进行价格操纵而导致价格上涨，Super Micro 或中间商实际产生的收入可能是其数倍，据北约称。[45]

Super Micro said in its 2023 filings that the impact of U.S. export bans was unlikely to be material and said sales to Russia and Belarus had not been material prior to the invasion.[46]
Super Micro 在其 2023 年的文件中表示，美国出口禁令的影响不太可能重大，并指出在入侵之前，对俄罗斯和白俄罗斯的销售额并不显著。[46]

In calendar year 2023, exports of Super Micro products to Russia rose to $126.6 million – 9.6x higher than in 2021 – per Tradesparq data. That value was equivalent to 4.9% of Super Micro´s total worldwide sales, excluding the U.S., in calendar 2023, per filings. [1, 2, 3, 4] [47]
在 2023 年日历年内，根据 Tradesparq 数据，超微产品对俄罗斯的出口额攀升至 1.266 亿美元，较 2021 年增长了 9.6 倍。这一数值相当于超微 2023 年全球（不含美国）总销售额的 4.9%，相关信息来自提交的文件。[1, 2, 3, 4] [47]

The actual result as a percentage of worldwide sales may be much higher given that trade data shows the declared customs value, not the actual value of revenue derived from wartime Russia.
考虑到贸易数据显示的是申报的关税价值而非战时俄罗斯实际产生的收入价值，实际结果在全球销售额中所占的百分比可能要高得多。

The U.S. Government Has Repeatedly Warned Companies To Step Up Export Compliance Efforts To Prevent Goods Being Illegally Smuggled To Russia
美国政府已多次警告企业加强出口合规措施，以防止商品被非法走私至俄罗斯。

Many Of The Red Flags Government Agencies Have Raised Closely Reflect The Pattern Of Super Micro Exports
许多政府机构提出的红旗警示与超微公司出口的模式密切相关

Super Micro Appears To Have Paid No Heed To Publicly Visible Warning Signs Or The Company’s Own Screening Policy
超微似乎对公开可见的警示信号或公司自身的筛查政策视而不见

The U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) has specifically advised multinational companies to step up due diligence and export compliance efforts, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. [Pg. 4]
美国工业和安全局（“BIS”）特别建议跨国公司在俄罗斯入侵乌克兰后加强尽职调查和出口合规工作。[第 4 页]

The BIS has warned companies to scrutinize export orders from new customers, to be on the lookout for an increase in orders of certain components, and to check that larger orders of controlled items are not broken down into smaller shipments to avoid detection.[48] [Pg. 5]
BIS 已警告企业要仔细审查来自新客户的出口订单，留意某些组件订单的增加，并检查受控商品的大宗订单是否被拆分成小批量发货以规避检测。[48][第 5 页]

It has also published a list of countries that may be used as transshipment points for restricted items en route to Russia, including Taiwan, Kazakhstan, China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. [Pg.7]
它还发布了一份国家名单，这些国家可能被用作受限物品运往俄罗斯途中的转运点，包括台湾、哈萨克斯坦、中国、土耳其和阿拉伯联合酋长国。[第 7 页]

These are all fact patterns that we have observed regarding the export of Super Micro parts to Russia, based on our analysis of Tradesparq data.
这些都是我们基于对 Tradesparq 数据的分析，观察到的有关超微部件出口至俄罗斯的情况。

Given repeated warnings by the U.S. and other coalition governments, we would expect Super Micro – a company with significant international trade and a track-record of non-compliance – to be hyper attentive to U.S. government guidance. This is especially so given the company’s own policy stating it will perform “red flag screening” on its clients.
鉴于美国及其他联盟政府一再发出警告，我们本应期望超微公司——一家在国际贸易中占有重要地位且有违规记录的公司——对美国政府的指导保持高度关注。尤其在该公司自身的政策中明确表示将对客户进行“红旗筛查”的情况下，更是如此。

Clearly a large spike in the value of exports to Russia during a major geopolitical event, combined with a slew of new intermediaries in high-risk countries, should have prompted reflection.
在重大地缘政治事件期间，出口至俄罗斯的价值明显大幅上升，加之高风险国家涌现大量新中间商，本应引发深思。

Instead, it appears Super Micro has simply ridden the wave of rising demand for its products in Russia.
相反，Super Micro 似乎只是乘上了其产品在俄罗斯需求上升的浪潮。

At Least 46 Companies That Handled Super Micro Products To Russia Are Now Under OFAC Sanctions Or On U.S. Government Watchlists
至少有 46 家曾向俄罗斯销售超微产品公司现遭 OFAC 制裁或被美国政府列入观察名单

Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) sanctions are part of a package of national emergency measures to hamper the “technology sector or the defense and related materiel sector of the Russian Federation economy”. Others have been designed to combat Russian cyber-attacks and meddling in U.S. elections.[49]
外国资产控制办公室（“OFAC”）制裁是一系列国家紧急状态措施的一部分，旨在阻碍“技术领域或俄罗斯联邦经济的国防及相关物资领域”。其他措施则旨在打击俄罗斯的网络攻击及对美国选举的干预。[49]

That means that U.S. companies cannot provide any goods, services or otherwise engage in business with sanctioned entities nor receive payment from them.
这意味着美国公司不得提供任何商品、服务或以其他方式与受制裁实体开展业务，也不得从他们那里接收付款。

Since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, a web of at least 235 exporters and 185 importers have been shipping Super Micro parts into Russia, per Tradesparq data.
自 2022 年 2 月入侵乌克兰以来，根据 Tradesparq 数据，至少有 235 家出口商和 185 家进口商一直在将超微部件运往俄罗斯。

At least 17 of those exporters are currently subject to U.S. Treasury Department OFAC blocking sanctions.[50] And at least 17 of the importers in that period are also currently sanctioned by OFAC.[51]
至少有 17 家这些出口商目前受到美国财政部外国资产控制办公室（OFAC）的封锁制裁。[50] 在同一时期内，至少有 17 家进口商也正受到 OFAC 的制裁。[51]

Another 11 exporters of Super Micro products to Russia after the invasion, listed by Tradesparq, currently feature on the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security´s (BIS) so-called “parties of concern” or entity list.[52] [53] Additionally, at least one of the importer entities are listed on the BIS entity list. [54]
入侵事件后，另有 11 家向俄罗斯出口超微产品出口商，根据 Tradesparq 的名单，目前出现在美国工业和安全局（BIS）所谓的“关注方”或实体清单上。[52][53]此外，至少有一家进口商实体也被列入 BIS 实体清单。[54]

That list, included in the U.S. government´s consolidated screening list, comprises individuals and entities engaged in sanctioned activities and/or actions “contrary to U.S. national security and/or foreign policy interests”.
该名单包含在美国政府的《综合筛查名单》中，列出了从事受制裁活动和/或采取“与美国国家安全及/或外交政策利益相悖”行动的个人和实体。

Of the overall total, the 28 exporters now on sanctions lists or watchlists appear to have exported about $44.5 million of Super Micro products to Russia since its invasion of Ukraine, per Tradesparq data.
在总体数据中，根据 Tradesparq 的数据，目前被列入制裁名单或观察名单的 28 家出口商似乎自俄罗斯入侵乌克兰以来，已向俄罗斯出口了约 4450 万美元的超微产品。

The 18 importers on those sanctions and watchlists, have handled about $80.5 million of imports of Super Micro products since the invasion of Ukraine.
自乌克兰被入侵以来，列入制裁和观察名单的 18 家进口商已处理了约 8050 万美元的超微产品进口。

While only 3 of the exporters and 6 of the importers appear to have handled Super Micro goods even after they were sanctioned or watchlisted, the products they were shipping to Russia were already subject to stringent export controls – tantamount to an export ban – after February 24^th, 2022.
尽管只有 3 家出口商和 6 家进口商在超微公司被制裁或列入观察名单后似乎仍在处理其商品，但自 2022 年 2 月 24^日起，他们运往俄罗斯的产品已受到严格的出口管制——相当于出口禁令。

Their role in shipping goods in contravention of trade restrictions – sanctions busting – would have contributed to their inclusion on U.S. government lists.
他们在违反贸易限制——即规避制裁——运送货物的行为，可能导致了其被列入美国政府名单。

Almost 2/3 Of Super Micro Exports To Russia Since The February 2022 Invasion Correspond To “High Priority” Components That The Russian Military May Be Diverting To The Battlefield, Per U.S. Government Warnings
自 2022 年 2 月入侵以来，超微公司近三分之二对俄出口产品属于美国政府警告中的“高优先级”组件，俄罗斯军方可能将其转用于战场。

In February 2024, the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security issued additional clarification and a so-called Common High Priority List of 50 high-priority components, and their corresponding Harmonized System (“HS”) Codes, that are banned from export to Russia, stating: [55]
2024 年 2 月，美国工业和安全局发布了进一步的澄清以及所谓的 50 项高优先级组件的通用高优先级清单，以及它们相应的协调制度（“HS”）编码，这些组件被禁止出口到俄罗斯，声明如下：[55]

“While BIS’s controls cover a vast array of items necessary to fuel Russia’s war machine, certain items are more significant to Russian weaponry than others.”
“尽管 BIS 的管控涵盖了为俄罗斯战争机器提供动力的众多必需品，但某些物品对俄罗斯武器装备的重要性超过其他物品。”

Based on our analysis of available Tradesparq data, 62.8% – or $131.9 million – of Super Micro exports to Russia since the invasion of Ukraine until June 30^th, 2024, correspond to HS prefix 8471.50. This is one of the codes listed on the Bureau´s “common high priority list”  (CHPL), which is broadly described as processing units such as “storage units, input units, [and] output units”. [56] [57]
根据我们对可用 Tradesparq 数据的分析，自乌克兰被入侵至 2024 年 6 月 30^日，Super Micro 对俄罗斯的出口中，62.8%，即 1.319 亿美元，对应于 HS 编码前缀8471.50。这是列入局“通用高优先级列表”（CHPL）的代码之一，该列表广泛描述为包括“存储单元、输入单元[及]输出单元”等处理单元。[56][57]

One Of The Biggest Importers Of Super Micro Products Is A Supplier To One Of Russia´s Largest “Super Computers” At A Once-Secret, Now Sanctioned Research Center
超微产品最大的进口商之一是俄罗斯一家曾秘密、现受制裁的研究中心内最大“超级计算机”的供应商

It Has Received At Least $46.3 Million Of Super Micro Products Since The Start Of The Russia-Ukraine War, Per Tradesparq Data
自俄乌战争爆发以来，已收到至少 4630 万美元的超微产品，根据 Tradesparq 数据。

Moscow-based Niagara Computers has been a longstanding distributor of Super Micro products judging by certificates dating from 1999, 2002, 2004 and 2007 posted on its website.
莫斯科的尼亚加拉电脑公司作为超微产品的长期分销商，其网站上展示的证书可追溯至1999 年、2002 年、2004 年和2007 年。

After the invasion of Ukraine, Niagara became the single largest importer of Super Micro products to Russia, receiving $46.3 million – or 22% of the total – between June 2022 and December 2023, per Tradesparq.[58]
在乌克兰被入侵后，尼亚加拉成为俄罗斯最大的超微产品单一进口商，从 2022 年 6 月至 2023 年 12 月间接收了 4630 万美元，即总量的 22%，根据 Tradesparq 数据。[58]

Niagara Computers – not currently on U.S. sanctions lists – states that one of the stand-out projects it is involved in is “one of the most powerful supercomputers in Russia” at the formerly secret  Kurchatov Institute.
尼亚加拉计算机（Niagara Computers）——目前未被列入美国制裁名单——声称其参与的突出项目之一是位于前秘密机构库尔恰托夫研究所的“俄罗斯最强大的超级计算机之一”。

That facility is a Russian state organization that leads research and development in nuclear energy – including nuclear weapons – aviation materials, electronics and computer science, per its website. 
该机构是俄罗斯国家组织，主导核能（包括核武器）、航空材料、电子学和计算机科学领域的研究与开发，据其官网介绍。

The institute has been on the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security watchlist since September 2022. Its aviation materials research unit has been under OFAC blocking sanctions since March 2022 while its structural materials research unit has been under OFAC sanctions since December 2022.
该研究所自 2022 年 9 月起已被美国商务部工业与安全局列入观察名单。其航空材料研究部门自 2022 年 3 月起受到美国财政部海外资产控制办公室的封锁制裁，而其结构材料研究部门自2022 年 12 月起也受到 OFAC 的制裁。

Super Micro Appears To Have Continued Supplying Longstanding Customer Niagara Computers Via An “Insanely Intimate” Distributor In California
超微公司似乎通过加州一家“极其紧密”的分销商继续向长期客户尼亚加拉电脑公司供货。

The CEO Of The California Company And The Russian Entity Is The Same Person
加州公司和俄罗斯实体的首席执行官是同一人

We believe that all the common-sense indicators suggest that Super Micro continued to knowingly supply one of its longstanding Russian customers first via a California distributor operated by a key executive of one of its authorized partners and later via a web of Turkish shell companies.
我们相信，所有常识性指标均表明，超微公司继续有意向其长期合作的俄罗斯客户供货，最初是通过其授权合作伙伴中一位关键高管经营的加利福尼亚分销商，随后则通过一系列土耳其的空壳公司进行。

Trade data shows Super Micro exporting goods directly to Niagara until February 24^th, 2022, the day Russia invaded Ukraine.
贸易数据显示，超微公司直至 2022 年 2 月 24 日^日，即俄罗斯入侵乌克兰当天，仍在直接向尼亚加拉出口货物。

Then between July 12^th, 2022 and February 8^th 2023, a California entity named Business Development International took over exports of Super Micro products to Niagara – in apparent contravention of U.S. trade restrictions – per import-export data.
然后在 2022 年 7 月 12^日至 2023 年 2 月 8^日期间，一家名为 Business Development International 的加州实体接管了超微产品向尼亚加拉的出口业务——根据进出口数据显示，此举显然违反了美国的贸易限制。

In just a little more than 6 months, Business Development International shipped more than $5.8 million of “computing machine devices”, “data processing blocks” and “parts and accessories” solely to Niagara Computers in Russia, per Tradesparq.
在短短 6 个多月的时间里，国际业务发展公司向俄罗斯的尼亚加拉计算机公司独家运送了超过 580 万美元的“计算机设备”、“数据处理模块”以及“零部件和配件”，据 Tradesparq 报道。

Of those exports, 94.9% correspond to the HS prefix 8471.50 – one of the codes later specifically listed on the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security´s “common high priority list”  (CHPL) of items that Russia has been procuring for battlefield use.
在这些出口中，94.9%对应于 HS 编码前缀8471.50 – ，这是美国工业和安全局“常见高优先级清单”（CHPL）中特别列出的代码之一，俄罗斯一直在为战场采购这些物品。

It appears Business Development International, or at least its key executives were clearly well-known to Super Micro, as were their commercial ties with Russia.
似乎商业发展国际公司，或至少其关键高管，对超微公司来说显然是熟知的，正如他们与俄罗斯的商业联系一样。

The company’s local office was less than 2 miles from Super Micro´s headquarters.[59]
公司的地方办事处距离 Super Micro 的总部不到2 英里。[59]

The CEO of Business Development International is named as Dmitri Garanov. A search of his Idaho address via public records aggregator Lexis Nexis lists his initial as Dmitri N. Garanov.
国际业务发展公司的首席执行官名为德米特里·加拉诺夫。通过公共记录聚合器律商联讯搜索他在爱达荷州的地址，显示他的首字母为德米特里·N·加拉诺夫。

Dmitri Nikolaievich Garanov is also the full name of the chairman and majority shareholder of Niagara Computers in Moscow, per Russian corporate registry data. Effectively, Super Micro appears to be selling components directly to its longstanding Russian customer via a California front company run by the same CEO.
德米特里·尼古拉耶维奇·加拉诺夫也是莫斯科尼亚加拉电脑公司的董事长及大股东的全名，根据俄罗斯企业注册信息显示。实际上，超微公司似乎通过由同一位 CEO 经营的加州前台公司，直接向其长期合作的俄罗斯客户销售组件。

Business Development International’s CFO, Mariya Zevelyov had also held the same position at Viatech International Trade Corporation, which was incorporated in 1997 and was still listed as an authorized partner for the Ukraine and Kazakhstan markets on Super Micro’s website as of August 2024.[60]
国际业务发展公司的首席财务官 Mariya Zevelyov 也曾在 Viatech 国际贸易公司担任相同职位，该公司于1997 年成立，截至 2024 年 8 月，在超微电脑的网站上仍被列为乌克兰和哈萨克斯坦市场的授权合作伙伴。[60] 

An archived version of the Viatech website from 2018 shows the entity was a distributor for Super Micro and includes information in Russian in which it says it has “accumulated vast experience in logistics, especially with the CIS countries”.
2018 年存档的Viatech 网站显示，该实体曾是 Super Micro 的分销商，并包含俄文信息，其中提到其“在物流方面积累了丰富的经验，尤其是在独联体国家中”。

On its website, Viatech boasted of its proximity to Super Micro and their “almost insanely intimate” business relationship.
在其网站上，Viatech 自豪地宣扬其与 Super Micro 的邻近性以及他们“近乎疯狂的紧密”商业关系。

We reached CFO Zevelyov by phone and she confirmed she had known Dmitri Garanov since the mid-1990s and that he was both CEO of Business Development International in California and president and owner of Niagara Computers in Russia.
我们通过电话联系到了 CFO Zevelyov，她确认自 1990 年代中期起就认识 Dmitri Garanov，并指出他既是加州 Business Development International 的 CEO，也是俄罗斯 Niagara Computers 的总裁兼所有者。

When asked about exports of Super Micro components to Russia following the invasion of Ukraine, she responded:
当被问及乌克兰被入侵后，超微公司组件向俄罗斯的出口情况时，她回答道：

“I don’t know. Can you ask Dmitri [Garanov] because I am not aware what he was doing.”
“我不清楚。你能问一下德米特里[加拉诺夫]吗，因为我不知道他在做什么。”

When asked about her role as CFO at Business Development International she responded:
当被问及她在国际业务发展公司担任首席财务官的角色时，她回答说：

“I just helped, nothing. I just help him [Dmitri Garanov] sometimes. If he asked me to transfer money. Yes, I help him. Like accountant.”
“我只是帮了点小忙，没什么。我有时帮他，比如他让我转账的时候。对，我帮他，就像个会计。”

As The California Distributor Wound Down Exports, 3 Newly-Created Turkish Shell Entities Then Took Over Shipments To Niagara Computers
随着加利福尼亚分销商逐渐减少出口，三家新成立的土耳其壳公司随即接管了向尼亚加拉电脑公司的货物运输

Just as California-based Business Development International’s export operations were winding down, three recently-created Turkish companies took over shipping Super Micro products to Niagara.
正当总部位于加州的国际业务发展公司（Business Development International）的出口业务逐渐收尾之际，三家新成立的土耳其公司接手了将超微产品（Super Micro）运往尼亚加拉的业务。

The largest, Koc Gemicilik Ve Tasimacilik, was incorporated on January 11^th 2022 – about five weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine, per the Turkish corporate gazette.[61]
最大的公司，Koc 航运与运输，于 2022 年 1 月 11^日成立——大约在俄罗斯入侵乌克兰前五周，根据土耳其企业公报。[61]

The company only has a basic website in English, Russian and Turkish and vaguely introduces itself as the “largest Turkish company providing various types of services and facilities”. [62] [63]
该公司仅拥有一个基础网站，提供英语、俄语和土耳其语版本，并模糊地介绍自己为“提供各类服务和设施的土耳其最大公司”。[62][63]

Between March 6^th 2023 and December 21^st 2023, Koc Gemicilik Ve Tasimacilik exported $32.1 million of Super Micro products solely to Niagara in Russia, per Tradesparq.[64]
2023 年 3 月 6^日至 12 月 21^日期间，Koc Gemicilik Ve Tasimacilik 根据 Tradesparq 的数据，仅向俄罗斯的 Niagara 出口了价值 3210 万美元的 Super Micro 产品。[64]

In June 2024, Koc Gemicilik Ve Tasimacilik was placed under U.S. sanctions for its role in smuggling restricted items to Russia.
2024 年 6 月，Koc Gemicilik Ve Tasimacilik因在向俄罗斯走私受限物品中的角色而受到美国制裁。

The other two export intermediaries, Alfament Yazilim Teknoloji and AMD Ithalat Ihracat were both incorporated in Turkey within two months of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, per the Turkish corporate gazette.
另外两家出口中介机构，阿尔法门软件技术和AMD 进出口，均在俄罗斯入侵乌克兰后的两个月内于土耳其注册成立，根据土耳其公司公报。

Neither entity nor their sole shareholders appear to have any significant online presence.
两家公司及其唯一股东似乎都没有显著的在线存在感。

Between January 2023 and October 2023, those two entities shipped a combined $8.3 million of Super Micro components to Niagara, per Tradesparq. The vast majority of those products corresponded to HS trade prefix 8471.50 – items the U.S. says are being diverted for military use.
2023 年 1 月至 10 月期间，这两家实体向 Niagara 运送了总计 830 万美元的超微组件，根据 Tradesparq 的数据。其中绝大部分产品对应 HS 贸易编码 8471.50 项下的商品，美国方面称这些产品正被转作军事用途。

Newly-created Turkish entities, run by Ukrainian and Russian citizens, with little or no trading history and little or no online presence would have been an unmissable warning sign during even the most rudimentary due diligence and export compliance checks.
新成立的土耳其实体，由乌克兰和俄罗斯公民运营，几乎没有或完全没有交易历史，也几乎没有或没有在线存在，即便在最基本的尽职调查和出口合规检查中，也会是一个不容忽视的警告信号。

One Of Super Micro´s “Authorized Partners” Has Exported More Than $10.25 Million Of Super Micro Components To Russia Since The War
自战争爆发以来，超微公司的一家“授权合作伙伴”已向俄罗斯出口了价值超过 1025 万美元的超微组件。

Its Largest Russian Customer – Who Advertises Itself As A Super Micro Partner – Supplies The Russian Secret Police, A Naval Guidance Systems And Electronics Research Center And The Orlan-10 Drone Maker
其最大的俄罗斯客户——自称为超级微合作伙伴——为俄罗斯秘密警察、海军导航系统与电子研究中心以及 Orlan-10 无人机制造商提供产品

Under its partnership program, Super Micro provides basic and monthly training, permits co-branding and offers co-op marketing funds to “trusted” distributors and resellers globally.
在其合作伙伴计划下，Super Micro 提供基础和月度培训，允许联合品牌，并向全球“可信赖的”分销商和经销商提供合作营销资金。

Super Micro lists IT distributor Beiliande as an “authorized partner” in the “where to buy” section of its main website.[65]
超微在其主网站的“购买渠道”部分，将 IT 分销商贝良德列为“授权合作伙伴”。[65]

Between November 2^nd, 2022 and November 14^th, 2023, Beiliande exported Super Micro products with a declared customs value of approximately $10.25 million to Russia – via both its Shenzhen and Hong Kong operations, per Tradesparq.
在 2022 年 11 月 2^日至 2023 年 11 月 14^日期间，贝利兰德通过其深圳和香港业务，向俄罗斯出口了申报海关价值约为 1025 万美元的超微产品，据 Tradesparq 数据。

The largest single Russian customer supplied by Beiliande was called Asilan, based in St Petersburg, which received goods with a declared customs value of about $3.6 million, per Tradesparq.[66]
北联达最大的单一俄罗斯客户名为阿斯兰，总部位于圣彼得堡，根据 Tradesparq 的数据，其申报的货物海关价值约为 360 万美元。[66]

Asilan´s website provides a list of 19 of its top clients – at least a quarter of which are subject to U.S. wartime sanctions. These include:
Asilan 的网站列出了其 19 个顶级客户，其中至少四分之一受到美国战时制裁。这些客户包括：

• federal security service and successor to the infamous KGB – currently under U.S. sanctions.
  联邦安全局，即臭名昭著的克格勃的继任者——目前处于美国制裁之下。
• Russian state research institute, which produces advanced navigation, gyroscopy and submarine electronics and is also sanctioned by the U.S.
  俄罗斯国家研究机构，该机构生产先进的导航、陀螺仪及潜艇电子设备，并同样受到美国的制裁。
• also sanctioned by the U.S.
  也受到美国的制裁
• Gazprombank, Russia´s third largest bank, and Miran, a server rental and data center provider – also both under U.S. sanctions.
  俄罗斯天然气工业银行，俄罗斯第三大银行，以及米兰，一家服务器租赁和数据中心提供商——两者均受到美国制裁。

Asilian states on the website that it is a partner of Super Micro, provides a link to Super Micro in Holland and features photos with Asilan personnel carrying boxes marked with the Super Micro logo. Its website features multiple links to what it says are Super Micro servers and data storage systems. [1, 2, 3]
Asilian 在其网站上声明自己是Super Micro 的合作伙伴，提供了一个指向荷兰 Super Micro 的链接，并展示了 Asilan 员工手持带有 Super Micro 标志的箱子的照片。其网站上还有多个链接，指向其所称的 Super Micro 服务器和数据存储系统。[1, 2, 3]

Almost $30 Million Of Super Micro Components Were Shipped To Russia´s Largest Importer Of Dual Use Civilian-Military Chips Via A Hong Kong Entity Created 7 Weeks After The War Began
超微公司近 3000 万美元的组件通过一家香港实体，在战争爆发 7 周后运往俄罗斯最大的民用-军用双用途芯片进口商

Moscow-based IT distributor Vneshekostil received about $29.4 million of Super Micro products following Russia´s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, per Tradesparq. It appears to have had no prior trading relationship with Super Micro and received most of the components via a Hong Kong exporter created seven weeks after the war began.[67]
总部位于莫斯科的 IT 分销商外经钢在俄罗斯 2022 年入侵乌克兰后，从超微公司获得了约 2940 万美元的产品，据 Tradesparq 数据显示。该公司此前似乎与超微并无贸易往来，大部分组件是通过战争爆发七周后在香港成立的一家出口商获得的。[67]

Vneshekostil was sanctioned by the U.S. in September 2023 after it became “one of the largest importers of dual-use chips into Russia”, per the U.S. Treasury.
外装于 2023 年 9 月被美国制裁，原因是它“成为向俄罗斯进口双用途芯片的最大进口商之一”，根据美国财政部的说法。

Super Micro Has A Joint Venture With A Chinese State-Run Company Called Fiberhome, Which Is Involved In A Campaign Of “Human Rights Violations And Abuses”, High-Tech Surveillance And Repression Of Ethnic Communities In Western China
超微与一家名为烽火通信的中国国有公司有合资关系，该公司参与了在西部中国对少数民族群体进行高科技监控和镇压的“侵犯人权和虐待”运动

Super Micro Has Sold ~$196 Million Of Sophisticated Computer Components To The Joint Venture Since Its Chinese Majority Owner Was Watchlisted By The U.S. Government In 2020
自 2020 年其中国大股东被美国政府列入观察名单以来，超微已向该合资企业出售了约 1.96 亿美元的先进计算机组件。

Super Micro Is Vague About Naming This Entity In Its U.S. Public Filings
超微在其美国公开文件中对这一实体的命名含糊其辞

In October 2016, Super Micro agreed to a joint venture partnership with a Chinese state-owned technology company, per a Super Micro investor call.
2016 年 10 月，超微与一家中国国有科技公司达成合资伙伴关系，此消息来自超微的一次投资者电话会议。

Super Micro has a 30% stake and the controlling 70% is held by the Chinese entity, per filings.
根据文件显示，Super Micro 持有30%的股份，而占控股权的 70%则由中国实体持有。

Super Micro largely glosses over the relationship and does not specifically identify either the joint venture nor its Chinese business partner in its U.S. filings, though it mentioned the business partner name on investor conference calls in 2017.
Super Micro 在其美国文件中基本上淡化了这一关系，并且没有具体指明合资企业或其中国业务合作伙伴的身份，尽管它在 2017 年的投资者电话会议中提到了该合作伙伴的名称。

The JV partner – Fiberhome Telecommunication Technologies – is named in the filings of a Super Micro subsidiary’s annual report in the Netherlands. The joint venture entity is called Fiberhome Supermicro Information Technologies.[68] [Pg. 28]
合资伙伴——烽火通信科技——在荷兰一家超微子公司年报的文件中被提及。该合资实体名为烽火超微信息科技有限公司。[68] [第 28 页]

FiberHome Telecommunication is a Chinese state controlled entity located in the city of Wuhan, in central China, with the Chinese government holding 70% voting rights, per the Sovereign Wealth Institute and China company records.[69]
烽火通信是中国位于中部城市武汉的一家国家控股企业，根据主权财富研究所和中国公司记录，中国政府持有其 70%的表决权。[69]

The parent group, Fiberhome Technologies Group, along with eight “aliases” and a subsidiary, including Fiberhome Telecommunication, have all been watchlisted by the U.S. Bureau Of Industry and Security (BIS) on its “entity list” since 2020.
母公司集团烽火科技集团及其八个“别名”和一个子公司，包括烽火通信，自 2020 年起已被美国工业和安全局（BIS）列入其“实体清单”监视名单。

Specifically, the U.S. government said the move was aimed at restricting Fiberhome´s access to U.S. technology, accusing it of being:
具体而言，美国政府表示此举旨在限制烽火通信获取美国技术，指控其存在以下问题：

“Complicit in human rights violations and abuses committed in China’s campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, forced labor and high-technology surveillance against Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and other members of Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region”.[70]

The U.S. government has categorized China´s actions in Xinjiang as “genocide and crimes against humanity” with at least 1 million Uyghurs illegally imprisoned and subjected to a litany of abuse including forced labor and torture.

Super Micro discloses that its Chinese business partner has been watchlisted by the U.S. government but it consistently fails to mention the name of its controlling partner nor detail the reasons for investors.
超微公司披露，其中国业务合作伙伴已被美国政府列入观察名单，但始终未提及其控股合作伙伴的名称，也未向投资者详细说明原因。

Since July 1, 2020, in the three full fiscal years immediately after the U.S. government flagged Fiberhome´s complicity in the brutal repression of China´s ethnic Uighur minority, Super Micro disclosed it has shipped $196.4 million of high-tech components to the joint venture.[71]
自 2020 年 7 月 1 日起，在美国政府指出烽火通信参与残酷镇压中国维吾尔族少数民族后的三个完整财政年度内，超微公司披露已向该合资企业运送了1.964 亿美元的高科技组件。[71]

Super Micro justifies its continued participation in the joint venture along with the sale of highly sensitive technology, arguing that it believes it is in compliance with U.S. government controls because the joint venture entity itself is not watchlisted, even though the partner and numerous related entities are.
超微公司为其持续参与合资企业及销售高度敏感技术的行为辩护，辩称其相信自身符合美国政府管控要求，因为合资实体本身未被列入观察名单，尽管合作伙伴及众多相关实体已被列入。

Super Micro’s lenders, Bank of America, ING and HSBC have a different view. A credit agreement amendment filed in 2022 specifically added language declaring the JV to be a restricted investment, saying Super Micro shall not:
超微公司的贷款方，美国银行、荷兰国际集团和汇丰银行则持不同观点。2022 年提交的一份信贷协议修订案特别增加了将该合资企业视为受限投资的表述，明确指出超微公司不得：

“use the proceeds of any Revolver Loan, or any other credit extended by any Lender, to directly make an Investment in, or otherwise directly support, FiberHome Supermicro Information Technology Co Ltd.”[72]
“利用任何循环贷款的收益，或任何贷款人提供的其他信贷，直接进行对烽火超微信息科技有限公司的投资，或以其他方式直接支持该公司。”[72]

Super Micro´s Chinese JV Appears To Have Won A 2021 Tender To Supply The Xinjiang Production And Construction Corps – A State-Run Paramilitary Force That Operates Prisons And Forced Labor Camps For Ethnic Minorities
超微的中国合资企业似乎在 2021 年赢得了一项向新疆生产建设兵团供应设备的招标——这是一个国家运营的准军事力量，负责管理针对少数民族的监狱和强迫劳动营

That Paramilitary Organization Had Been Placed Under U.S. Sanctions From July 2020, Prohibiting U.S. Entities From All Transactions, Including Goods And Services
该准军事组织自 2020 年 7 月起受到美国制裁，禁止美国实体进行包括商品和服务在内的所有交易。

Super Micro’s Chinese JV – Fiberhome Supermicro Information Technologies – says that it provides servers and storage systems for cloud computing, big data and AI to top customers across China and the storage industry, per its website.
超微的中国合资企业——烽火超微信息科技有限公司——在其网站上表示，它为中国及存储行业的顶级客户提供云计算、大数据和人工智能所需的服务器和存储系统。

In November 2021, Fiberhome Supermicro Information Technologies was awarded a tender to supply the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, per an archived notice on Qixin.com, an aggregator service for Chinese corporate filings and notices.
2021 年 11 月，烽火超微信息科技有限公司根据企信网（一个中国企业备案及公告信息聚合服务平台）上的存档公告，中标新疆生产建设兵团的供应项目。

The notice specifies the tender was for server equipment and includes a project number. But we were unable to obtain further details about the specification of the equipment, the value of the winning bid or the intended purpose of the equipment.
通知中明确指出招标内容为服务器设备，并附有项目编号。然而，我们未能获取有关设备规格、中标金额或设备预期用途的进一步详细信息。

On July 31^st, 2020, 16 months prior to that tender being awarded to Super Micro´s Chinese JV, the U.S. Treasury Department had placed the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps under blocking sanctions for its key role in the “serious human rights abuse” of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in China´s western Xinjiang region.

The OFAC notification explicitly states:
OFAC 的通知明确指出：

“The prohibitions include the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any blocked person or the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods or services from any such person.”
“这些禁令包括不得向任何受限个人提供或为其利益提供资金、货物或服务，也不得从任何此类个人接收资金、货物或服务。”

The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) is “a paramilitary organization in the XUAR (Xinjiang) that is subordinate to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)” and has been “implementing a comprehensive surveillance, detention, and indoctrination program targeting Uyghurs and members of other ethnic minority groups”, per the U.S. Treasury notice.[73]
新疆生产建设兵团（XPCC）是“隶属于中国共产党（CCP）的位于新疆维吾尔自治区（XUAR）的准军事组织”，并且一直“针对维吾尔人和其他少数民族成员实施全面的监视、拘留和教化计划”，根据美国财政部的通知。[73]

Conclusion: A Serial Recidivist

All told, we believe Super Micro is a classic case of recidivism. Its actions suggest that it hasn’t changed from its checkered past regarding its revenue recognition and accounting practices.
总的来说，我们认为超微公司是一个典型的累犯案例。其行为表明，在收入确认和会计实务方面，它并未从其斑驳的过去中吸取教训，有所改变。

While the company gained an initial lead in supporting the AI industry, it seems to be cutting corners on its accounting, sanctions compliance, and product quality, all while more credible competitors eat away at its margins and market share.
尽管该公司在支持人工智能产业方面取得了初步领先，但它似乎在会计、制裁合规和产品质量方面偷工减料，与此同时，更可信的竞争对手正逐步侵蚀其利润率和市场份额。

Appendix I:

Super Micro Built Its Factory Right Next Door To The CEO´s Brothers In Taiwan
超微在其首席执行官的兄弟在台湾的工厂旁建立了新厂

Now Super Micro, Ablecom And Compuware Are Building Another Shared “Technology Park” In Malaysia
如今，超微、艾铂科和康普威尔正在马来西亚共同建设另一个“科技园区”

Super Micro´s facilities in Taiwan are co-located with its two disclosed related parties Ablecom and Compuware.[74]
超微在台湾的设施与其两家公开关联方 Ablecom 和 Compuware 位于同一地点。[74]

Super Micro built a new, custom, nine-story high, ~800,000 sq. ft facility in 2019, per a corporate press release. Despite building this large facility for itself, as of the end of 2023, Super Micro continued to lease 160,0000 sq. ft of space in Taiwan from its related parties Ablecom and Compuware, including warehouse, manufacturing and office space.
超微公司于 2019 年根据一份企业新闻稿，建造了一座全新的、定制的、高达九层、约 80 万平方英尺的设施。尽管为自己打造了如此庞大的设施，截至 2023 年底，超微仍继续租赁台湾关联方艾比酷和康普威旗下的 160,000 平方英尺空间，包括仓库、制造以及办公空间。

There is little clarity about how the production campus has been developed since 2010 and more importantly how capital expenditure costs have been split.[75]
自 2010 年以来，生产园区的具体发展情况鲜为人知，更关键的是，资本支出的成本分配也未清晰披露。[75]

Now, all three companies – headed by the three Liang brothers – are simultaneously setting up new, multi-million dollar operations in Malaysia, per filings and a corporate website.
如今，这三家公司——均由梁氏三兄弟领导——正同时于马来西亚设立新的、耗资数百万美元的业务，根据提交的文件及企业网站信息。

While Super Micro describes Ablecom and Compuware setting up in “close proximity” in Malaysia, photos published by Compuware indicate all three companies are creating a shared industrial campus as confirmed by a site visit by a Hindenburg researcher to Senhai Airport industrial park.
尽管超微公司描述了 Ablecom 和 Compuware 在马来西亚“紧邻布局”的情况，但Compuware发布的照片显示，三家公司正在共同打造一个共享的工业园区，这一点得到了兴登堡研究员对森海机场工业园实地考察的证实。

Super Micro’s side-by-side construction with Ablecom and Compuware, first in Taiwan and now in Malaysia, shows logistical and financial coordination between all three entities. They appear to be taking decisions in unison on manufacturing capacity and capital expenditure in a way we would more typically expect from a parent and its subsidiaries rather than separate related parties.
超微与 Ablecom 和 Compuware 在台湾及马来西亚的并肩建设，展现了三方在物流与财务上的协同合作。他们似乎在生产能力和资本支出方面采取统一决策，这种做法更像是母公司与子公司的行为，而非独立关联方之间。

Disclosure: We are short shares of Super Micro Computer, Inc. (Nasdaq: SMCI)
披露：我们持有超微电脑公司（纳斯达克：SMCI）的空头头寸。

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[1] Super Micro’s fiscal year ends on June 30^th.
[1] 超微公司的财政年度结束于 6 月 30^日。

[2] OEM refers to ‘Original Equipment Manufacturer’, or a manufacturer that makes products for another company to sell.
[2]OEM 指的是“原始设备制造商”，即生产产品供其他公司销售的生产商。

[3] For example, Super Micro claims to offer its new Direct Liquid Cooling (DLC) solutions in “2-4 weeks”, per its presentation at an industry conference in June 2024. [15:31] This compares to competitors like Hewlett Packard (“HPE”) who disclose lead time of between 6 to 12 weeks for non-liquid cooled solutions, per its June 2024 investor call. [Pg. 3]

[4] An ODM, or original design manufacturer, is a company that develops products themselves before manufacturing them for another company, per Data Center Knowledge.

[5] In ascending order of trailing twelve-month gross margins: Pegatron 4.1%, Compal 4.7%, Inventec 5.3%, Hon Hai 6.4%, Quanta 8.3% and Wiwynn 10.7%, ­­­­­per Bloomberg.

[6] Note that the SEC complaint didn’t specifically name all the Super Micro executives allegedly involved in the scandal. These names were referenced in the 2024 litigation.

[7] Tech Data merged with Synnex in September 2021 to become TD Synnex, per the company press release. It is still commonly referred to as Tech Data – Super Micro’s own partner page, for example, displays many “Tech Data” entities.

[8] Taiwanese corporate filings show 10,769,976 Ablecom shares registered to Steve (Jianfa) Liang and 2,389,346 to his brother Bill (Jianda) Liang. A further 15,830,280 shares are allocated to a person named Chunmei Liao (an alternative spelling for Liaw and likely the sibling of co-founder Wally Liaw). Only director and supervisor shareholdings are publicly shown, not the full shareholder register.

[9] Per media articles, Charles (Jianhou) Liang (born 1958) is the eldest of four brothers, followed by Steve (Jianfa) Liang (born 1962), then Bill (Jianda) Liang (born 1966) and James (Jianguo) Liang (born 1970).

[10]  Taiwanese corporate filings show 4,671,200 Compuware shares registered to Bill (Jianda) Liang and 2,500,000 to his brother Steve (Jianfa) Liang. Another 6,238,800 are registered to Chunmei Liao, the likely sibling of Super Micro co-founder Wally Liaw.

[11] Up until its 2016 financial report – prior to delisting – Super Micro described Compuware as one of Ablecom´s subsidiaries. In its 2023 full-year filings, Super Micro describes Compuware as an “affiliate” of Ablecom, apparently on the premise that Ablecom has “significant influence” over Compuware operations. Ablecom currently lists Compuware as part of the “Ablecom Group” on its website.

[12] Bill Liang´s shareholding was directly in his name and also via a family entity Ablestnet Computer Inc. Steve Liang and his family holding in Compuware was directly in his name and also via family investment companies Jie Teng Investment, Yi Zhan Investment and Wei Chen International Investment. [Pg. 18]  

[13] Ablecom´s address is listed as at 306 Chang´An St. while Super Micro´s address is listed as Xingfeng Road. The streets are perpendicular.

[14] There is little data for the value of Ablecom´s exports so we measured records based on weight of shipments.

[15] Ablecom’s two other export customers in the U.S. in 2024 were King Star Computer, a California computer company with 9 associated employees on LinkedIn and Ixystems, a software and storage company also in California, per Tradesparq. Internationally, Ablecom exported to a single customer both in India and Vietnam and to three in Russia, per the available Tradesparq data.

[16] In that period, Compuware has shipped to only one other U.S. customer named in Tradesparq as California-based Antron Electronics. Internationally, Compuware exported to a single customer in each of India, Kazakhstan and the Philippines and to three customers in Russia, per Tradesparq.

[17] Barclays in its September 2023 initiation report listed “liquid cooling and rack scale” as key technology differentiation. JP Morgan wrote in its March 2024 initiation report that “beyond customization, differentiation also stems from selling full rack solutions and liquid cooling”.

[18] While BAMSEC transcribes Charles Liang’s remarks as “we are leading the industry”, we checked the tapes and believe it to be “we are beating the industry”; this is also consistent with Bloomberg’s transcription.

[19] Super Micro simply states “We work with Ablecom to optimize modular designs for our chassis and certain of other components. We outsource to Compuware a portion of our design activities and a significant part of our manufacturing of subassemblies, particularly power supplies.”

[20] The search can be recreated at https://findbiz.nat.gov.tw/ and searching via the company business number “28631648”. Per these records, James Liang held 8,256,000 shares. Total share capital is 9,635,000.

[21] Total share count is 210,000 shares per the Taiwanese corporate records. Despite ownership showing the entity was owned 99% by James Liang, the company, described Aeon Lighting as its parent company on its website.

[22] Ablecom´s address is listed as at 306 Chang´An Road while Super Micro´s address is listed as No. 1899 Xingfeng Road. The streets are perpendicular and the Super Micro industrial campus is accessible from both roads.

[23] Aeon Biotech’s website, for example, makes reference to the “Disinfection Box” and “disinfection light from space”.

[24] The same interview says that Charles Liang has three sisters but does not state their occupations.

[25] 亞科數位科技有限公司 or “Yake Digital Technology Co.” is the Chinese name of the entity in HK,

[26] The search can be recreated at https://findbiz.nat.gov.tw/ and searching via the company business number 86223917. Total shares outstanding is 2,980,000.

[27] We searched all Super Micro’s available financial records, using BAMSEC and Bloomberg, with the term “Lambda”. This only returned one reference to a license agreement announced in June 2024 for data center space, but no mention of any investment or the funding round.

[28] To use industry parlance, this appears to be a “value added reseller” model where Leadtek build servers using Super Micro parts.

[29] Specifically on its Q4 2024 earnings call, Super Micro attributed the margin decline to its hyperscale mix, “expedited cost” of DLC liquid cooling, components shortage, and $800 million in revenue that was shifted into next quarter.

[30] Wells Fargo research speculated that Tesla accounted for 16.8% of Q3 2024 revenue in a May 6, 2024 Flash Note.

[31] Essentially as GPU cloud player, Genesis rents out GPU compute to its customers over cloud.

[32] We estimate the deal to be around 10,000 GPUs, per our channel checks.

[33] If for example, Genesis Cloud was half the size of Taiga Cloud’s $800 million investment with HP, it would be ~40% of Super Micro’s FY 23 European revenue, although the deal would likely be multi year. Taiga describes itself as the “largest dedicated Generative AI cloud service provider” in Europe.

[34] Based on H100 GPU costing between ($30,000-$40,000) per media estimates and an average of 8 GPUs per server.

[35] The list published by Super Micro includes only Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria and the

geographic region of Crimea.

[36] The U.S. government had imposed successive waves of sanctions on Russian entities and individuals and restricted the export of certain goods since 2014 in response to Russia´s invasion of Ukraine´s Crimea peninsula and the threat of cyberattacks.

[37] Our understanding of the breadth of the export restrictions is also reflected in this report by the New York Times.

[38] Despite having operations worldwide, including Europe and Taiwan, Super Micro says it “designs, develops, and manufactures the majority of our development in the United States.”

[39] The total volumes of imports and exports may be underestimated given that the Tradesparq platform is unable to access trade databases from certain countries or for certain country pairings.

[40] Our methodology consisted mainly of downloading import and export information from Tradesparq using the search terms “Supermicro” and “Super Micro” as exporter, importer and brand name. We then sifted data using pivot table analysis.

[41] Others include these [1,2,3]

[42] The BIS guidance includes a non-exhaustive list of countries, including Kazakhstan, that may serve as transshipment points for restricted goods ultimately destined for Russia. [Pg.7] The export of Super Micro products to Kazakhstan grew 565% in 2022 vs 2021 and a further 19.5% in 2023 vs 2022, per Tradesparq.

[43] Three-quarters of those exports were shipped directly by Super Micro and its subsidiaries along with the two largest third-party exporters. The remainder was shipped in much smaller volumes by approximately 65 third-party exporters, per Tradesparq records. The two main third-party exporters shipping Super Micro products to Russia prior to the invasion of Ukraine were ASBISc Enterprises PLC and EasyPro Ltd, per Tradesparq.

[44] All these countries have been specifically named as potential transshipment points by the U.S. government – as well as Hong Kong, which has also been identified as a trade hub for the “world´s most brutal regimes”. [Pg.7]

[45] Most of the exporters of Super Micro products were new customers. The overwhelming majority only began handling Super Micro products to Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, while just eight appear to have had any relationship exporting Super Micro goods to Russia prior to the invasion, per Tradesparq data. 64.2% of the Super Micro exports to Russia originated in Taiwan, according to the available Tradesparq data. Taiwan is a major hub and manufacturing center for Super Micro operations. 22.32% of the Super Micro products exported to Russia originated in “China”, per Tradesparq. It was not clear whether that referred to mainland China or also to Taiwan. 7.4% of the exports to Russia originated in the U.S., per Tradesparq.

[46] Tradesparq data shows at least $15.15 million of Super Micro products were exported to Russia in calendar year 2021. Worldwide sales excluding U.S. were $2.42 billion for calendar 2022, per Super Micro quarterly filings.

[47] Super Micro worldwide sales, excluding the U.S., were $2.58 billion in calendar 2023, based on quarterly filings. [1, 2, 3, 4]

[48] In a January 2024 speech, Assistant Secretary of Export Enforcement Matthew Axelrod spelled out the complexity of the task facing the BIS and explained his agency was vastly under-resourced.

[49] Blocking sanctions were imposed using national emergency measures under U.S. presidential executive order EO 14024 from April 2021. The order was originally separate from other executive orders targeting Russia after its 2014 invasion of Crimea and February 2022 invasion of wider Ukrainian territory. EO 14024 “addresses national security threats posed by specified harmful foreign activities of the Russian Federation, including: its efforts to undermine the conduct of free and fair democratic elections…and facilitating malicious cyber-enabled activities against the United States”. It was later extended to include activities in the Russian technology and defense sectors. 

[50] Details of sanctioned exporters can be found on the U.S. government consolidated screening list, the OFAC sanctions list or on the hyperlinked press releases. For the avoidance of confusion we state the name of the entity as it appears on U.S lists and any name variation found on Tradesparq data is listed in (parentheses): ARP Investments Ltd, Asay Ic Ve Dis Ticaret Limited Sirketi (Asay Iс Ve Dis Ticaret Ltd), Belluga Ic Ve Dis Ticaret Limited Sirketi (Belluga Ic Ve Dis Ticaret Limited), Carovilli Trading, Kartal Exim Dis Ticaret Limited Sirketi (Kartal Exim Dis Ticaret Limited), Koc Gemicilik Ve Tasimacilik Dis Ticaret Limited Sirketi (Koc Gemicilik Ve Tasimacilik Dis Ticaret Limited), Kominvex DOO Beograd (Kominvex D.O.O), Luchengtech Co. Ltd., NIT Group Fze (N.I.T Group Fze), New Horizons Trading Limited, Pixel Devices Ltd, Polarstar Logistics LLC, Secret Logistics Solution Fzco, Shenzhen Biguang Trading Co. Ltd, Thamestone SA, Asia Pacific Links Limited, Elmec Trade OU.

[51] Details of sanctioned importers can be found on the U.S. government consolidated screening list, the OFAC sanctions list or on the hyperlinked press releases. For the avoidance of confusion we state the name of the entity as it appears on U.S lists and the name in Russian as found on Tradesparq data is listed in (parentheses): OOO Novyi Ai Ti Project (ООО НОВЫЙ АЙ ТИ ПРОЕКТ), OOO Vneshekostil (ООО ВНЕШЭКОСТИЛЬ), OOO Lanprint (ООО ЛАНПРИНТ), Compliga (ООО КОМПЛИГА), Silkway Limited Liability Company (ООО СИЛКВЕЙ), Limited Liability Company Fortap (ООО ФОРТАП), AK Systems (ООО АК СИСТЕМС), Aktsionernoe Obshchestvo Taskom (АО ТАСКОМ), Brand Server Options – BSO (ООО БСО), Joint Stock Company Scan (АО СКАН), Nauchno Proizvodstvennoe Predpriyatie Itelma (ООО НПП ИТЭЛМА) Limited Liability Company Sansara (ООО САНСАРА), Baltelektron Limited Liability Company (ООО БАЛТЭЛЕКТРОН), Inelso LLC (ООО ИНЕЛСО), OOO Orlan (ООО ОРЛАН), Limited Liability Company Device Consulting (ООО ДЕВАЙС КОНСАЛТИНГ), SMT-iLogic (ООО СМТ-АЙЛОГИК).

[52] Details of watchlisted exporters can be found on the U.S. government consolidated screening list. For the avoidance of confusion, we state the name of the entity as it appears on U.S lists and any name variation found on Tradesparq data is listed in (parentheses): Benico Limited, Ervacan Makina Ekipmanlari Ve Sanayi Tedarik. Ltd Sti (Ervacan Makina Ekipmanlari Ve Sa. Ted. Ltd), Grants Promotion Service Ltd, Most Technology Limited (Most Technology Company Limited), Muller Markt LLC, Shanghai IP3 Information Technology Co., Shenzhen One World International Logistics Co. Ltd., STK Electronics, Transeurope Bilisim Dis Ticaret Limited Sirketi (Transeurope Bilisim Dis Ticaret Limited), Win Key Limited, E-Chips Solution Co. Ltd.

[53] Per the consolidated screening list, these companies are subject to either “presumption of denial” or “policy of denial”, which means they will be routinely refused license applications to export restricted U.S. products.

[54] Details of watchlisted importers can be found on the U.S. government consolidated screening list. For the avoidance of confusion, we state the name of the entity as it appears on U.S lists and the name in Russian as found on Tradesparq data is listed in (parentheses): Grant Instrument (ООО ГРАНТ ИНСТРУМЕНТ).

[55] The notice referred to items that were already banned for export to Russia but was intended to make it even easier for exporters to check.

[56] Apart from the HS export codes, most of the Super Micro components shipped to Russia are not described in great detail on the Tradesparq records. Items are vaguely described as “server platforms”, “motherboards”, “computing machines” and “data processing units”. In the relatively few instances where specific chipsets are mentioned, they generally refer to apparently older vintage Intel and AMD models (Intel Atom C3758, Xeon E3 15578L, Xeon CLX 6242R, 4216, 5220R, AMD Rome 7252, Milan 7543). That pattern reflects efforts made by Russia to circumvent the impact of sanctions by using lower grade chips and even domestic computerware for military applications.

[57] More than half the exports of that category of product were shipped by just three exporters, Koc Gemicilik Ve Tasimacilik Dis Ticaret Limited Sirketi (Turkey) now under OFAC sanctions, Agu Information Technology Co., Ltd (Hong Kong) and Sky Walk Company- Fzco (UAE), per Tradesparq. Those locations have been flagged as potential transshipment points of restricted goods to Russia in U.S. Department of Commerce guidance and in media reports. [Pg. 7]

[58] We have seen no trade data indicating Niagara Computers had imported Super Micro products in 2024.

[59] Business Development International was incorporated in California in 2002, per corporate records. Its San Jose address seems to be a Regus co-working space.

[60] Corporate filings show Viatech International Trade Corporation applied to voluntarily wind up in December 2022.

[61] To search the Turkish corporate gazette, we used the names including Turkish accents or the registration number. In both cases we stipulated the cities where the entities are registered: Koç Gemicilik Ve Taşimacilik Diş Ticaret Limited Şirketi, 352819-5, Istanbul, Alfament Yazilim Teknoloji Sanayi Ticaret Limited Şirketi, 118684, Antalya, Amd İthalat İhracat Ve Ticaret Limited Şirketi, 378055-5, Istanbul.

[62] The sole shareholder is named as Dzheikun Bairamov and listed as being a Ukrainian citizen, per the Turkish corporate gazette. An online search suggests he may originally be from Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine.

[63] An earlier more basic version of the company website was hosted at https://kocgemicilikllc.com. The domain name search shows that website was registered to Valeriy Valerevich Martynov with the email ets-m2018@internet.ru  (which corresponds to the company ООО “ЕТС-М” in Russian.

[64] Since the start of the war, Koc Gemicilik Ve Tasimacilik has become the largest single exporter of Super Micro to Russia, accounting for just over 15% of total exports to Russia post-invasion, per trade data. Of all the goods it exported to Niagara, 99.5% correspond to HS prefix 8471.50 – the items that the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security has warned the Russian army is acquiring for military use.

[65] Super Micro also lists Guangzhou Wuzhou Technology, based in mainland southern China, as another of its authorized partners. Guangzhou Wuzhou Technology has a subsidiary in Hong Kong named HK Wuzhou Trading Company, with both sharing the same legal representative, per our analysis of Chinese and Hong Kong corporate filings.  The 100% shareholder of HK Wuzhou Trading Company is Xie Gaohui, per HK corporate filings. Xie Gaohui is named in media articles and on the Guangzhou Wuzhou Technology website as its director and general manager. The parent company´s largest shareholder is a Chinese state-owned entity and describes itself as a leader in server customization, per its website. On June 21^st, 2023, Guangzhou Wuzhou´s Hong Kong subsidiary shipped at least $71,250 of Super Micro products to a customer in Russia, per Tradesparq data. 93% of those components matched the HS codes 8471.50 and 8471.80 – both listed on the U.S. common high-priority list.

[66] Asilan was founded in 2013 and describes itself as a supplier of software and hardware and says it assembles, tests and supplies solutions for supercomputers and artificial intelligence systems, per its website.

[67] Agu Information Technology was incorporated in Hong Kong on April 11^th, 2022. The company was mentioned as an alleged sanctions violator in a report by the U.S. government´s U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

[68] Those filings can only be obtained via the Dutch corporate registry after registration and a fee payment – an added layer of steps that many investors may not routinely take.

[69] The stake is controlled by the Chinese government´s Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, per filings. The Parent entity Fiberhome Technology Group is a fully state-owned enterprise, per filings. In 2018, Fiberhome Group merged with Datang Telecom, per media reports. Datang Telecom was alleged to have extensive ties to the Chinese People´s Liberation Army (PLA) in a 2012 report prepared by U.S. defense contractor Northrop Grumman for the U.S. congressional U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. [Pgs. 68, 76]

[70] In general terms, the entity list imposes export restrictions and license requirements on companies suspected of engaging in “activities sanctioned by the State Department and activities contrary to U.S. national security and/or foreign policy interests”.

[71] 2021 $51.2 million; 2022 $121 million; 2023 $24.2 million, per its 10-K 2023.

[72] Note that the revolving agreement has a slightly different name variation for the JV entity, likely due to translation differences (i.e. “technology” vs. “technologies” as referenced in the Dutch filings.)

[73] The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps plays a leading role in extrajudicial internment and imprisonment; land expropriation; forcible migration of people; repressive policing; social engineering; religious persecution; operating prisons and forced labour camps, according to a 90-page investigation by researchers at the UK´s Sheffield Hallam University.

[74] Ablecom´s address is listed as at 306 Chang´An St. while Super Micro´s address is listed as Xingfeng Road. The streets are perpendicular.

[75] Super Micro has consistently stated that it and Ablecom have “separately constructed manufacturing facilities”. [1, 2] But Ablecom describes construction of the Super Micro Science and Technology Park as a “joint venture” costing an initial $172.4 million (TWD 5 billion), per a press release dated January 2012 posted on the English-language version of its website.