A $170 million order, 750 servers, 600 restricted Nvidia chips, and a Thailand-based front company that a U.S. hardware manufacturer spotted as suspicious within weeks — that is the scheme federal prosecutors say three men used to try to route some of America's most tightly controlled artificial intelligence technology (AI tech) to China in violation of U.S. export law.

The Justice Department on Wednesday, charged Stanley Yi Zheng, 56, of Hong Kong, Matthew Kelly, 49, of Hopewell Junction, New York, and Tommy Shad English, 53, of Atlanta, Georgia, with conspiring to commit smuggling and export control violations. The three defendants are alleged to have sought millions of dollars' worth o...