New Delhi, July 2 -- TAIPEI - When Taiwan's Keelung District Prosecutors' Office raided 12 locations on Monday - including the offices of Super Micro Computer, data center operator Chief Telecom, and server distributor Albatron Technology - investigators were following the trail of approximately NT$700 million worth of Nvidia's most advanced AI chips allegedly routed through Japan and into China. What they could not do, under Taiwanese law, was charge anyone for the act of exporting those chips.

The nine suspects now under investigation - up from three when the probe began in May - face charges of document forgery and fraudulent customs declarations. That is not a technicality. Taiwan has no statute that directly criminalizes the sale of...