President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14421 on 26 August 2026, declaring a national emergency over foreign exploitation of vulnerabilities in the bulk-power system and placing new limits on transactions involving it.
Vicor Corporation, a US power technology firm, began its own legal push less than two weeks later. On 8 September, it filed separate lawsuits against Monolithic Power Systems and Flex in the US District Court for the Western District of Texas, and a case against Delta Electronics, Infineon, Luxshare Precision, Quanta Computer, Hon Hai, Ingrasys Technology, Celestica and others in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
On 9 September 2026, Vicor filed a Section 337 complaint with the US International Trade Commission, then supplemented it on 10 September. It alleges that 20 companies infringed US Patent No. 10,903,734, “Delivering Power to Semiconductor Loads”, which was granted on 26 January 2021.
The US International Trade Commission voted on 9 October to open Investigation No. 337-TA-1526 into certain vertical power delivery systems, their components and computing systems containing them.
The equipment is part of the less glamorous machinery behind an AI server. Vertical power delivery systems supply electricity to high-performance central processing units, graphics processing units and custom processors, which can draw load currents exceeding 500 amperes. The products at issue are primarily used in data-centre servers, artificial intelligence and cloud-computing systems.
The respondents include China’s Luxshare Precision and Foxconn Industrial Internet, as well as Taiwan-based Hon Hai, Delta Electronics and Quanta Computer. Monolithic Power Systems, Infineon, Flex and Celestica are also named.
Luxshare said the products under investigation remain in customer validation and have not entered mass production. The company said it had assembled technical and legal teams to study the patents and prepare its response, and did not expect a material adverse effect on current operations or near-term financial results.
Luxshare Precision Industry Co Ltd shares slipped 2.1% to ¥46.6 on Monday after the investigation was announced.
Vicor is seeking a limited exclusion order that would bar the products from the US, alongside cease-and-desist orders against the companies. No violation has yet been found. An administrative law judge will hold hearings, after which the full commission will review an initial determination and set a target date for completing the case within 45 days after 9 October 2026.
This is Vicor’s third Section 337 investigation directed at the AI server power-supply chain. Its first such investigation ended in February 2025 with a finding of patent infringement and a limited exclusion order.
The patent dispute and the White House order concern different legal machinery, though both bear on foreign-made equipment used in systems central to US computing and power infrastructure. The executive order prohibits the acquisition, importation, transfer or installation of foreign-produced bulk-power system electric equipment when a foreign country or national has an interest in the transaction and it began after 26 August 2026.
China is among the countries covered by a policy of denial under section 126.1 of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, the provision incorporated by the order to define “Covered Foreign Entities”.
The order’s definition of bulk-power system electric equipment includes reactors, capacitors, substation transformers, utility-scale and grid-connected inverters, battery energy storage systems, uninterruptible power supply systems supporting critical infrastructure, generators, generation turbines, high-voltage circuit breakers, protective relaying, metering equipment and industrial control systems.
It provides no customs-style rules on substantial transformation, country of origin or de minimis foreign content. The Department of Energy must publish final implementing regulations in December 2026.
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