Greg Lui
Introduction
Greg Lui, 38 — also known as Yiu Kong Lui — is the founder and CEO of Earthmade Computers, a City of Industry, California server company the FBI raided and arrested him at on October 1, 2026, for allegedly smuggling more than $300 million in restricted American-made AI processors into China in violation of US export law. He is charged with conspiracy to violate the Export Control Reform Act, smuggling and conspiracy to commit money laundering, and faces up to 50 years in prison if convicted. Neither Lui nor any attorney for him is described in the reporting as having commented publicly.
Background Information
Lui founded Earthmade Computer in 2021, a company that handles database colocation, computer processor procurement and export from a campus in the City of Industry, according to his LinkedIn page as quoted in the report. His eight-year tech career began at Amplitude Tech Hosting Service, a Denver database-colocation firm; before that he was a restaurateur who co-founded Duo-Pot, a spicy Sichuan hot pot restaurant in Arcadia that operated from 2012 until it closed in 2021. Federal prosecutors describe him as a San Gabriel resident whose allegedly illegal export business paid for a nine-bedroom mansion worth nearly $2 million.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Charged, not adjudicated. Lui faces federal charges of conspiracy to violate the Export Control Reform Act, smuggling and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The account below comes from a criminal complaint and prosecutors’ statements as described in the New York Post’s reporting; the allegations are unproven, nothing has been adjudicated, and Lui is presumed innocent. Neither Lui nor any attorney for him is described in the reporting as having commented publicly.
Prosecutors say Lui and his co-conspirators used Earthmade to buy and ship sensitive AI technology to China from 2023 to 2024 without the licenses the Department of Commerce requires — high-end computer servers containing Nvidia processors that, under federal regulations, could make significant contributions to the Chinese military. Instead of direct shipment, they allegedly sent the hardware to Malaysia and Singapore, where no license is required, and then illegally re-exported it to China, using fake documents to show suppliers such as Nvidia that the gear was headed to destinations needing no export license.
The court papers describe the scheme in detail: in January 2024, Lui allegedly emailed a conspirator that a Malaysian transshipment company wanted to buy 70 servers carrying the controlled technology — noting in the same email that laws restricted such sales — then purchased 27 of them for roughly $7.6 million and shipped them from Los Angeles to Kuala Lumpur; two months later, a conspirator told a Malaysian official in an email that the servers had been transshipped to China. From January to October 2024, Earthmade allegedly received more than $176 million from two Malaysia-based shipment companies, and Lui is said to have moved the money through a Los Angeles-based JP Morgan Chase account and a Bank of America account.
FBI and Department of Commerce agents took Lui down at gunpoint in the company parking lot after tracking his white-wrapped Tesla Cybertruck from his home to the Earthmade offices — a raid the California Post’s photographer witnessed and photographed. The Post’s report dates the arrest to Wednesday, while one photo caption says Thursday. He did not speak as he was searched and taken in for processing.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The exclusive report framed the case in national-security terms — restricted Nvidia AI hardware allegedly reaching Beijing through a friendly-country laundering route while Washington tightens the export screws on China’s AI buildout. The US Department of Commerce, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service and the FBI are running the investigation, and prosecutors said Lui executed the scheme knowing it was illegal, citing his own January 2024 email acknowledging the laws against the sale. Earthmade has not issued a public statement about its founder’s arrest described in the reporting.
Current Status
Lui is charged in federal court with one count of conspiracy to violate the Export Control Reform Act, one count of smuggling and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering; the maximum combined exposure is 50 years in prison. He was processed into federal custody after the October 1 arrest, and the report describes no public court appearance or plea. The investigation by the DOC, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service and the FBI is continuing, and the charges remain unadjudicated.
Impact on Their Career/Life
The arrest caps Lui’s run from hot-pot restaurateur to AI hardware executive — his company, which his LinkedIn presents as an AI-integrated systems and data-center solutions provider, is named in court papers as the vehicle of the alleged scheme, and his personal fortune, including the San Gabriel mansion, is described by prosecutors as built on it. With a half-century of potential prison time attached to the charges and three federal agencies still digging, Lui’s business career is effectively over unless he beats the case in court.
Sources
- The New York Post, “Exclusive | FBI arrests California tech CEO for smuggling $300M in AI chips to China,” October 1, 2026. source