Super Micro shares tumble 15% after DOJ reportedly opens probe into company

Published

1 year ago

September 26, 2024

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Super Micro Computer shares fell more than 15% on Thursday after the Justice Department reportedly opened a probe into the company, which has been a major beneficiary of the artificial intelligence boom.

The probe is in its early days, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal, and it comes after Hindenburg Research disclosed a short position in the company in late August. Hindenburg said it identified “fresh evidence of accounting manipulation,” according to its report. CNBC could not independently verify Hindenburg’s claims.

Super Micro makes computers that companies use as servers for websites, data storage and other applications, including AI algorithms. The company’s customers include major players in AI such as Nvidia, AMD and Intel.

A prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office in San Francisco has asked for information about a former employee who has previously accused Super Micro of accounting violations, according to the Journal.

Following Hindenburg’s report in August, Super Micro said it would not file its annual report for the fiscal year with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on time, sending shares tumbling nearly 20%. It is not clear if the delay was related to the firm’s report.

Super Micro and the Department of Justice declined to comment. Hindenburg did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.

Technology

Figure AI sued by whistleblower who warned that startup’s robots could ‘fracture a human skull’

Published

8 hours ago

November 21, 2025

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$Figure AI sued by whistleblower who warned that startup's robots could 'fracture a human skull'$

Startup Figure AI is developing general-purpose humanoid robots.

Figure AI

Figure AI, an Nvidia-backed developer of humanoid robots, was sued by the startup’s former head of product safety who alleged that he was wrongfully terminated after warning top executives that the company’s robots “were powerful enough to fracture a human skull.”

Robert Gruendel, a principal robotic safety engineer, is the plaintiff in the suit filed Friday in a federal court in the Northern District of California. Gruendel’s attorneys describe their client as a whistleblower who was fired in September, days after lodging his “most direct and documented safety complaints.”

The suit lands two months after Figure was valued at $39 billion in a funding round led by Parkway Venture Capital. That’s a 15-fold increase in valuation from early 2024, when the company raised a round from investors including Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, and Microsoft.

In the complaint, Gruendel’s lawyers say the plaintiff warned Figure CEO Brett Adcock and Kyle Edelberg, chief engineer, about the robot’s lethal capabilities, and said one “had already carved a ¼-inch gash into a steel refrigerator door during a malfunction.”

The complaint also says Gruendel warned company leaders not to “downgrade” a “safety road map” that he had been asked to present to two prospective investors who ended up funding the company.

Gruendel worried that a “product safety plan which contributed to their decision to invest” had been “gutted” the same month Figure closed the investment round, a move that “could be interpreted as fraudulent,” the suit says.

The plaintiff’s concerns were “treated as obstacles, not obligations,” and the company cited a “vague ‘change in business direction’ as the pretext” for his termination, according to the suit.

Gruendel is seeking economic, compensatory and punitive damages and demanding a jury trial.

Figure didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Nor did attorneys for Gruendel.

The humanoid robot market remains nascent today, with companies like Tesla and Boston Dynamics pursuing futuristic offerings, alongside Figure, while China’s Unitree Robotics is preparing for an IPO. Morgan Stanley said in a report in May that adoption is “likely to accelerate in the 2030s” and could top $5 trillion by 2050.

Read the filing here: