Biden Administration Unveils New AI Chip Export Rules in Final Days of Presidency

How Biden Is Solidifying His A.I. Legacy in His Last Week as President

The executive order was announced shortly after the Biden Administration unveiled a new set of A.I. chip guidelines. With less than a week left in office, President Joe Biden yesterday (Jan. 14) signed an executive order to streamline A.I. infrastructure across the U.S. Aimed at bolstering the country's competitive advantage over the technology, the order earmarks federal sites for A.I. data centers built by private companies. Sign Up For Our Daily Newsletter Sign Up Thank you for signing up! By clicking submit, you agree to our <a href="http://observermedia.com/terms">terms of service</a> and acknowledge we may use your information to send you emails, product samples, and promotions on this website and other properties. You can opt out anytime. See all of our newsletters "Cutting-edge A.I. will have profound implications for national security and enormous potential to improve Americans' lives if harnessed responsibly, from helping cure disease to keeping communities safe by mitigating the effects of climate change," said Biden in a statement. "However, we cannot take our lead for granted." The order directs the Department of Defense and Department of Energy to identify at least three sites where the private sector can build A.I. data centers. Developers tapped for the land will have to pay for the construction and operation of these facilities. In a nod to the massive amounts of energy needed to power A.I. infrastructure, private companies developing on federal land will also be required to bring enough clean energy resources to match these data centers' electricity needs. The A.I. revolution has spurred a dramatic rise in the energy consumption of such facilities, which accounted for 4 percent of the nation's total electricity use last year -- a figure that could more than double to 9.1 percent by the end of the decade, according to data from the Electric Power Research Institute. Speeding up A.I. data center development is also a key component of Biden's new order, which urged agencies to prioritize "expeditious" permitting of A.I. infrastructure on federal land. Opportunities to hasten this process could include establishing "categorical exclusions" under the National Environmental Policy Act for infrastructure that doesn't have significant environmental impacts, according to White House officials. The executive order came a day after the Biden Administration announced a new framework for the exporting of chips used to power A.I. products. In addition to placing further restrictions on exports to countries like China and Russia, the new rule calls for a 50,000-chip cap per country for most of the world. The rule, which cannot be enforced for 120 days, was met with pushback from impacted countries and major industry players alike. "We believe it is also in the U.S. economic and security interest that the E.U. buys advanced A.I. chips from the U.S. without limitations," said the European Commission's tech and security head Henna Virkkunen and trade chief Maroš Šefčovič in a joint statement. U.S. chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA), meanwhile, called the framework "misguided," describing it as one that "threatens to derail innovation and economic growth worldwide" in a blog post. "We're trying to strike the right balance between ensuring the frontier of A.I. stays in the [U.S.] and our close allies while also ensuring that the rest of the world can benefit from A.I. and get the hardware that they need to power A.I. applications going forward," said Jake Sullivan, the White House national security advisor, while defending the A.I. chip framework in a press briefing earlier this week. "We think this is, in a bipartisan spirit, the way to best preserve and protect America's lead when it comes to artificial intelligence."

Data Centers, AI Rules, Chip Limits and OpenAI Talks Policy | PYMNTS.com

With one week left in office, President Biden signed an executive order that sets aside federal lands for building of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, with the full cost borne by developers of AI foundation -- or frontier -- models like OpenAI's GPT-4o. AI model developers must also make sure there is a clean energy source for these data centers, as intense AI workloads are a notorious energy guzzler. The latest order follows Biden's October 2023 executive order setting out guardrails for powerful frontier or foundation AI models. It includes ensuring the government gets to evaluate AI systems before they are deployed in areas such as cybersecurity and other national security risks. Biden also pledged to develop labeling and content provenance mechanisms, so consumers can tell which content is AI-generated. Trump issued the first executive order on AI in 2020, calling for its use in the federal government. Different states (California, Texas and others) also have their own AI rules. AI regulations differ in the U.S. from the U.K. and Europe. The EU AI Act is a much more sweeping legislation that assesses AI applications based on three risk levels: unacceptable risk (similar to government-run scoring of individuals based on social standing), high-risk (resume-scanning AI tools that ranks job applicants) and what's not banned or seen as high risk. U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on Monday (Jan. 13) an action plan to make Britain a leader in AI, including expanding its data center capacity for AI workloads. Starmer said formal AI regulations are coming. His predecessor Rishi Sunak unveiled an AI regulatory framework for existing regulators to follow. Biden also expanded on his 2022 and 2023 AI chip export controls meant to keep China and other adversary nations from getting their hands on AI hardware. This week's new regulations carve the world into groups of haves and have-nots: 18 allies and partners will not have any restrictions at all, while buyers of smaller chip orders of up to 1,700 advanced GPUs in computational power get the greenlight as well. These are typically universities and research organizations. However, more than 120 other countries reportedly face new rules in setting up AI computing facilities. Trusted entities include those based in countries that are close U.S. allies and are not headquartered in a "country of concern." Those not based in allied countries can still buy up to 50,000 advanced GPUs per country. Biden also set rules that would keep secret an AI model's weights from untrusted entities, among other security controls. The rules are expected to impact Nvidia, whose GPU chips have been the silicon of choice for training and inference of AI models. The company has a market share pegged at more than 80%. Nvidia positioned itself for an AI revolution back in 2006; its GPUs were initially developed to handle gaming and other graphics-intensive applications. Co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang bet the company's future on the pivot to AI, despite AI advances having stalled in past so-called "AI winters." Ned Finkle, Nvidia's vice president of government affairs, decried Biden's new rules. He wrote in a blog that the advance of AI globally is "now in jeopardy." He said Biden's "misguided" policy "threatens to derail innovation and economic growth worldwide." Finkle called Biden's expanded export control rules as a "200+ page regulatory morass, drafted in secret and without proper legislative review." Such regulatory action "threatens to squander America's hard-won technological advantage," he added. Finkle lauded the first Trump administration for fostering an environment of AI innovation and said he "looked forward" to a return to his policies as the ex-president prepares to take his oath of office. The Semiconductor Industry Association weighed in with its own statement. "We're deeply disappointed that a policy shift of this magnitude and impact is being rushed out the door days before a presidential transition and without any meaningful input from industry." As OpenAI CEO Sam Altman signaled plans to attend the inauguration of President Trump, his AI startup preemptively rolled out a blueprint to keep America at the forefront of AI development. "We believe America needs to act now to maximize AI's possibilities while minimizing its harms. AI is too powerful a technology to be led and shaped by autocrats, but that is the growing risk we face, while the economic opportunity AI presents is too compelling to forfeit," according to OpenAI's "AI in America" economic plan.

Biden's administration proposes new rules on exporting AI chips, provoking an industry pushback

The Biden administration is proposing a new framework for the exporting of the advanced computer chips used to develop artificial intelligence, an attempt to balance national security concerns about the technology with the economic interests of producers and other countries. But the framework proposed Monday also raised concerns of chip industry executives who say the rules would limit access to existing chips used for video games and restrict in 120 countries the chips used for data centers and AI products. Mexico, Portugal, Israel and Switzerland are among the nations that could have limited access. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on a call with reporters previewing the framework that it's "critical" to preserve America's leadership in AI and the development of AI-related computer chips. The fast-evolving AI technology enables computers to produce novels, make scientific research breakthroughs, automate driving and foster a range of other transformations that could reshape economies and warfare. "As AI becomes more powerful, the risks to our national security become even more intense," Raimondo said. The framework "is designed to safeguard the most advanced AI technology and ensure that it stays out of the hands of our foreign adversaries but also enabling the broad diffusion and sharing of the benefits with partner countries." White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan stressed that the framework would ensure that the most cutting-edge aspects of AI would be developed within the United States and with its closest allies, instead of possibly getting offshored such as the battery and renewable energy sectors. A tech industry group, the Information Technology Industry Council, warned Raimondo in a letter last week that a hastily implemented new rule from the Democratic administration could fragment global supply chains and put U.S. companies at a disadvantage. Another group, the Semiconductor Industry Association, said Monday it was disappointed that the policy was being "rushed out the door" before a presidential transition. "The new rule risks causing unintended and lasting damage to America's economy and global competitiveness in semiconductors and AI by ceding strategic markets to our competitors," said SIA President and CEO John Neuffer. One industry executive, who is familiar with the framework and insisted on anonymity to discuss it, said the proposed restrictions would limit access to chips already used for video games, despite claims made otherwise by the government. The executive said it would also limit which companies could build data centers abroad. Because the framework includes a 120-day comment period, the incoming Republican administration of President-elect Donald Trump could ultimately determine the rules for the sales abroad of advanced computer chips. This sets up a scenario in which Trump will have to balance economic interests with the need to keep the United States and its allies safe. Government officials said they felt the need to act quickly in hopes of preserving what is perceived to be America's six- to 18-month advantage on AI over rivals such as China, a head start that could easily erode if competitors were able to stockpile the chips and make further gains. Ned Finkle, vice president of external affairs at Nvidia, said in a statement that the prior Trump administration had helped create the foundation for AI's development and that the proposed framework would hurt innovation without achieving the stated national security goals. "While cloaked in the guise of an 'anti-China' measure, these rules would do nothing to enhance U.S. security," he said. "The new rules would control technology worldwide, including technology that is already widely available in mainstream gaming PCs and consumer hardware." Under the framework, roughly 20 key allies and partners would face no restrictions on accessing chips, but other countries would face caps on the chips they could import, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House. The allies without restrictions include Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. Users outside of these close allies could purchase up to 50,000 graphics processing units per country. There would also be government-to-government deals which could bump up the cap to 100,000 if their renewable energy and technological security goals are aligned with the United States. Institutions in certain countries could also apply for a legal status that would let them purchase up to 320,000 advanced graphics processing units over two years. Still, there would be limits as to how much AI computational capacity could be placed abroad by companies and other institutions. Also, computer chip orders equivalent to 1,700 advanced graphics processing units would not need a license to import or count against the national chip cap, among the other standards set by the framework. The exception for the 1,700 graphics processing units would likely help to meet the orders for universities and medical institutions, as opposed to data centers. The new rules are not expected to hinder the AI-driven data center expansion plans of leading cloud computing providers such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft because of exemptions for trusted companies seeking large clusters of advanced AI chips. "We're confident we can comply fully with this rule's high security standards and meet the technology needs of countries and customers around the world that rely on us," said Brad Smith, Microsoft's president, in a statement Monday. Microsoft drew bipartisan scrutiny last year after it announced a $1.5 billion investment in a technology firm based in the United Arab Emirates and overseen by the country's powerful national security adviser. Based in Abu Dhabi, G42 runs data centers in the Middle East and elsewhere and has built what's considered to be the world's leading Arabic-language AI model. It also has ties to China, leading Republican members of Congress to call for "special scrutiny" of the AI partnership and to urge Biden officials to implement "more robust national security guardrails" to prevent key U.S. technology from falling into China's hands. © 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

U.S. tightens its grip on AI chip flows across the globe

An artificial intelligence chip at Annapurna Labs in Austin, Texas, on Oct. 21, 2024.Sergio Flores / Bloomberg via Getty Images file The U.S. government said on Monday it would further restrict artificial intelligence chip and technology exports, divvying up the world to keep advanced computing power in the U.S. and among its allies while finding more ways to block China's access. The new regulations will cap the number of AI chips that can be exported to most countries and allow unlimited access to U.S. AI technology for America's closest allies, while also maintaining a block on exports to China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. The lengthy new rules unveiled in the final days of outgoing President Joe Biden's administration go beyond China and are aimed at helping the U.S. keep its dominant status in AI by controlling it around the world. "The U.S. leads AI now -- both AI development and AI chip design, and it's critical that we keep it that way," U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said. The regulations cap a four-year Biden administration effort to hobble China's access to advanced chips that can enhance its military capabilities and seek to maintain U.S. leadership in AI by closing loopholes and adding new guard rails to control the flow of chips and global development of AI. While it is unclear how President-elect Donald Trump's incoming administration will enforce the new rules, the two administrations share similar views on the competitive threat from China. The regulation is set to take effect 120 days from publication, giving the Trump administration time to weigh in. New limits will be placed on advanced graphics processing units (GPUs), which are used to power data centers needed to train AI models. Most are made by Santa Clara, California-based Nvidia NVDA.O, while Advanced Micro Devices AMD.O also sells AI chips. Nvidia and AMD were down between 2% and 3% in premarket trading on Monday. Major cloud service providers, such as Microsoft MSFT.O, Google GOOGL.O and Amazon AMZN.O, will be able to seek global authorizations to build data centers, a powerful part of the new rules that will exempt their projects from the country quotas on AI chips. Shares of all three companies slipped in premarket action by about 1%. To obtain a stamp of approval, authorized companies must abide by stringent conditions and restrictions, including security requirements, reporting demands and a plan or track record of respecting human rights. Until now, the Biden administration had imposed sweeping restrictions on China's access to advanced chips and the equipment to produce them, updating the controls annually to tighten restrictions and capture countries at risk of diverting the technology to China. Because the rules alter the landscape for AI chips and data centers around the world, powerful industry voices criticized the plan even before it was published. Nvidia on Monday called the rule "sweeping overreach" and said the White House would be clamping down on "technology that is already available in mainstream gaming PCs and consumer hardware." Data center provider Oracle ORCL.N argued earlier this month the rules would hand "most of the global AI and GPU market to our Chinese competitors." The rules impose worldwide licensing requirements on certain chips, with exceptions, and also set controls for what are known as "model weights" of the most advanced "closed-weight" AI models. Model weights help determine decision making in machine learning, and are generally the most valuable elements of an AI model. The regulation divides the world into three tiers. About 18 countries, including Japan, Britain, South Korea and the Netherlands, will essentially be exempt from the rules. Some 120 other countries, including Singapore, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will face country caps. And arms-embargoed countries like Russia, China and Iran will be barred from receiving the technology altogether. In addition, U.S. headquartered providers likely to receive global authorizations such as AWS and Microsoft will be allowed to deploy only 50% of their total AI computing power outside the United States, no more than 25% outside of the Tier 1 countries, and no more than 7% in a single non-Tier 1 country. AI has the potential to increase access to healthcare, education and food, among other benefits, but also can help develop biological and other weapons, support cyberattacks and assist with surveillance and other human rights abuses. "The U.S. has to be prepared for rapid increases in AI's capability in the coming years, which could have transformative impact on the economy and on our national security," U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said.

Why the Biden administration is proposing new rules for exporting AI chips

The Biden administration is proposing a new framework for the exporting of the advanced computer chips used to develop artificial intelligence, an attempt to balance national security concerns about the technology with the economic interests of producers and other countries. But the framework proposed Monday also raised concerns of chip industry executives who say the rules would limit access to existing chips used for video games and restrict in 120 countries the chips used for data centers and AI products. Mexico, Portugal, Israel and Switzerland are among the nations that could have limited access. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on a call with reporters previewing the framework that it's "critical" to preserve America's leadership in AI and the development of AI-related computer chips. The fast-evolving AI technology enables computers to produce novels, make scientific research breakthroughs, automate driving and foster a range of other transformations that could reshape economies and warfare. "As AI becomes more powerful, the risks to our national security become even more intense," Raimondo said. The framework "is designed to safeguard the most advanced AI technology and ensure that it stays out of the hands of our foreign adversaries but also enabling the broad diffusion and sharing of the benefits with partner countries." White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan stressed that the framework would ensure that the most cutting-edge aspects of AI would be developed within the United States and with its closest allies, instead of possibly getting offshored such as the battery and renewable energy sectors. A tech industry group, the Information Technology Industry Council, warned Raimondo in a letter last week that a hastily implemented new rule from the Democratic administration could fragment global supply chains and put U.S. companies at a disadvantage. "While we share the U.S. government's commitment to national and economic security, the rule's potential risks to U.S. global leadership in AI cannot be emphasized enough," said a statement from Naomi Wilson, the group's senior vice president for Asia and global trade policy. She called for a more extensive consultation with the tech industry. One industry executive, who is familiar with the framework and insisted on anonymity to discuss it, said the proposed restrictions would limit access to chips already used for video games, despite claims made otherwise by the government. The executive said it would also limit which companies could build data centers abroad. Because the framework includes a 120-day comment period, the incoming Republican administration of President-elect Donald Trump could ultimately determine the rules for the sales abroad of advanced computer chips. This sets up a scenario in which Trump will have to balance economic interests with the need to keep the United States and its allies safe. Government officials said they felt the need to act quickly in hopes of preserving what is perceived to be America's six- to 18-month advantage on AI over rivals such as China, a head start that could easily erode if competitors were able to stockpile the chips and make further gains. Ned Finkle, vice president of external affairs at Nvidia, said in a statement that the prior Trump administration had helped create the foundation for AI's development and that the proposed framework would hurt innovation without achieving the stated national security goals. "While cloaked in the guise of an 'anti-China' measure, these rules would do nothing to enhance U.S. security," he said. "The new rules would control technology worldwide, including technology that is already widely available in mainstream gaming PCs and consumer hardware." Under the framework, roughly 20 key allies and partners would face no restrictions on accessing chips, but other countries would face caps on the chips they could import, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House. The allies without restrictions include Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. Users outside of these close allies could purchase up to 50,000 graphics processing units per country. There would also be government-to-government deals which could bump up the cap to 100,000 if their renewable energy and technological security goals are aligned with the United States. Institutions in certain countries could also apply for a legal status that would let them purchase up to 320,000 advanced graphics processing units over two years. Still, there would be limits as to how much AI computational capacity could be placed abroad by companies and other institutions. Also, computer chip orders equivalent to 1,700 advanced graphics processing units would not need a license to import or count against the national chip cap, among the other standards set by the framework. The exception for the 1,700 graphics processing units would likely help to meet the orders for universities and medical institutions, as opposed to data centers.

Biden Proposes New Curbs on Exporting AI Chips

WASHINGTON -- The Biden administration is proposing a new framework for the exporting of the advanced computer chips used to develop artificial intelligence, an attempt to balance national security concerns about the technology with the economic interests of producers and other countries. But the framework proposed Monday also raised concerns of chip industry executives who say the rules would limit access to existing chips used for video games and restrict in 120 countries the chips used for data centers and AI products. Mexico, Portugal, Israel and Switzerland are among the nations that could have limited access. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on a call with reporters previewing the framework that it's "critical" to preserve America's leadership in AI and the development of AI-related computer chips. The fast-evolving AI technology enables computers to produce novels, make scientific research breakthroughs, automate driving and foster a range of other transformations that could reshape economies and warfare. "As AI becomes more powerful, the risks to our national security become even more intense," Raimondo said. The framework "is designed to safeguard the most advanced AI technology and ensure that it stays out of the hands of our foreign adversaries but also enabling the broad diffusion and sharing of the benefits with partner countries." White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan stressed that the framework would ensure that the most cutting-edge aspects of AI would be developed within the United States and with its closest allies, instead of possibly getting offshored such as the battery and renewable energy sectors. A tech industry group, the Information Technology Industry Council, warned Raimondo in a letter last week that a hastily implemented new rule from the Democratic administration could fragment global supply chains and put U.S. companies at a disadvantage. "While we share the U.S. government's commitment to national and economic security, the rule's potential risks to U.S. global leadership in AI cannot be emphasized enough," said a statement from Naomi Wilson, the group's senior vice president for Asia and global trade policy. She called for a more extensive consultation with the tech industry. One industry executive, who is familiar with the framework and insisted on anonymity to discuss it, said the proposed restrictions would limit access to chips already used for video games, despite claims made otherwise by the government. The executive said it would also limit which companies could build data centers abroad. Because the framework includes a 120-day comment period, the incoming Republican administration of President-elect Donald Trump could ultimately determine the rules for the sales abroad of advanced computer chips. This sets up a scenario in which Trump will have to balance economic interests with the need to keep the United States and its allies safe. Government officials said they felt the need to act quickly in hopes of preserving what is perceived to be America's six- to 18-month advantage on AI over rivals such as China, a head start that could easily erode if competitors were able to stockpile the chips and make further gains. Ned Finkle, vice president of external affairs at Nvidia, said in a statement that the prior Trump administration had helped create the foundation for AI's development and that the proposed framework would hurt innovation without achieving the stated national security goals. "While cloaked in the guise of an 'anti-China' measure, these rules would do nothing to enhance U.S. security," he said. "The new rules would control technology worldwide, including technology that is already widely available in mainstream gaming PCs and consumer hardware." Under the framework, roughly 20 key allies and partners would face no restrictions on accessing chips, but other countries would face caps on the chips they could import, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House. The allies without restrictions include Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. Users outside of these close allies could purchase up to 50,000 graphics processing units per country. There would also be government-to-government deals which could bump up the cap to 100,000 if their renewable energy and technological security goals are aligned with the United States. Institutions in certain countries could also apply for a legal status that would let them purchase up to 320,000 advanced graphics processing units over two years. Still, there would be limits as to how much AI computational capacity could be placed abroad by companies and other institutions. Also, computer chip orders equivalent to 1,700 advanced graphics processing units would not need a license to import or count against the national chip cap, among the other standards set by the framework. The exception for the 1,700 graphics processing units would likely help to meet the orders for universities and medical institutions, as opposed to data centers.

Biden administration proposes new restrictions on AI chip exports

The Biden administration is proposing new restrictions that would limit the export of advanced computer chips used to develop artificial intelligence, part of an effort to preserve America's six- to 18-month advantage on AI over rivals such as China. Proposed Monday, the framework is raising concerns of chip industry executives who say the rules would limit access to existing chips used for video games and restrict in 120 countries the chips used for data centers and AI products. Mexico, Portugal, Israel and Switzerland are among the nations that could have limited access. Chip giant Nvidia on Monday called the proposal "misguided," and said that it "threatens to derail innovation and economic growth worldwide." On a call with reporters previewing the framework, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said that it's "critical" to preserve America's leadership in AI and the development of AI-related computer chips. The fast-evolving AI technology enables computers to produce novels, make scientific research breakthroughs, automate driving and foster a range of other transformations that could reshape economies and warfare. "As AI becomes more powerful, the risks to our national security become even more intense," Raimondo said. The framework "is designed to safeguard the most advanced AI technology and ensure that it stays out of the hands of our foreign adversaries but also enabling the broad diffusion and sharing of the benefits with partner countries." White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan stressed that the framework would ensure that the most cutting-edge aspects of AI would be developed within the United States and with its closest allies, instead of possibly getting offshored such as the battery and renewable energy sectors. Government officials said they felt they needed to act quickly to preserve U.S. companies' advantage over China and other nations, an edge that could be easily eroded if competitors could stockpile chips and make further gains. AI-enhanced technology is forecast to help fuel growth and boost corporate productivity, with Wedbush analyst Dan Ives calling the tech developments a "once in a generation 4th Industrial Revolution" in a recent research note. A tech industry group, the Information Technology Industry Council, warned Raimondo in a letter last week that a hastily implemented new rule from the Democratic administration could fragment global supply chains and put U.S. companies at a disadvantage. "While we share the U.S. government's commitment to national and economic security, the rule's potential risks to U.S. global leadership in AI cannot be emphasized enough," said a statement from Naomi Wilson, the group's senior vice president for Asia and global trade policy. She called for a more extensive consultation with the tech industry. One industry executive, who is familiar with the framework and insisted on anonymity to discuss it, said the proposed restrictions would limit access to chips already used for video games, despite claims made otherwise by the government. The executive said it would also limit which companies could build data centers abroad. Because the framework includes a 120-day comment period, the incoming Republican administration of President-elect Donald Trump could ultimately determine the rules for the sales abroad of advanced computer chips. This sets up a scenario in which Trump will have to balance economic interests with the need to keep the United States and its allies safe. Ned Finkle, vice president of external affairs at Nvidia, said in a statement that the prior Trump administration had helped create the foundation for AI's development and that the proposed framework would hurt innovation without achieving the stated national security goals. "While cloaked in the guise of an 'anti-China' measure, these rules would do nothing to enhance U.S. security," he said. "The new rules would control technology worldwide, including technology that is already widely available in mainstream gaming PCs and consumer hardware." Under the framework, roughly 20 key allies and partners would face no restrictions on accessing chips, but other countries would face caps on the chips they could import, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House. The allies without restrictions include Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. Users outside of these close allies could purchase up to 50,000 graphics processing units per country. There would also be government-to-government deals which could bump up the cap to 100,000 if their renewable energy and technological security goals are aligned with the U.S. Institutions in certain countries could also apply for a legal status that would let them purchase up to 320,000 advanced graphics processing units over two years. Still, there would be limits as to how much AI computational capacity could be placed abroad by companies and other institutions. Also, computer chip orders equivalent to 1,700 advanced graphics processing units would not need a license to import or count against the national chip cap, among the other standards set by the framework. The exception for the 1,700 graphics processing units would likely help to meet the orders for universities and medical institutions, as opposed to data centers.

Biden Administration Adopts Rules to Guide A.I.'s Global Spread

The Biden administration issued sweeping rules on Monday governing how A.I. chips and models can be shared with foreign countries, in an attempt to set up a global framework that will guide how artificial intelligence spreads around the world in the years to come. With the power of A.I. rapidly growing, the Biden administration said the rules were necessary to keep a transformational technology under the control of the United States and its allies, and out of the hands of adversaries that could use it to augment their militaries, carry out cyberattacks and otherwise threaten the United States. The rules put various limitations on the number of A.I. chips that companies can send to different countries, essentially dividing the world into three categories. The United States and 18 of its closest partners -- including Britain, Canada, Germany, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan -- are exempted from any restrictions and can buy A.I. chips freely. Countries that are already subject to U.S. arms embargoes, like China and Russia, will continue to face a previously existing ban on A.I. chip purchases. All other nations -- most of the world -- will be subject to caps restricting the number of A.I. chips that can be imported, though countries and companies are able to increase that number by entering into special agreements with the U.S. government. The rules are aimed at stopping China from obtaining from other countries the technology it needs to produce artificial intelligence, after the United States banned such sales to China in recent years. But the regulations also have broader goals: having allied countries be the location of choice for companies to build the world's biggest data centers, in an effort to keep the most advanced A.I. models within the borders of the United States and its partners. Governments around the world, particularly in the Middle East, have been pumping money into attracting and building enormous new data centers, in a bid to become the next center for A.I. development. Jake Sullivan, President Biden's national security adviser, told reporters on Sunday that the rule would ensure that the infrastructure for training the most advanced artificial intelligence would be in the United States or in the jurisdiction of close allies, and "that capacity does not get offshored like chips and batteries and other industries that we've had to invest hundreds of billion dollars to bring back onshore." "The rule both provides greater clarity to our international partners and to industry, and counters the serious circumvention and related national security risks posed by countries of concern and malicious actors who may seek to use the advanced American technologies against us," Mr. Sullivan said. It will be up to the Trump administration to decide whether to keep the new rules or how to enforce them. In a call with reporters on Sunday, Biden administration officials said they had been in consultations with the incoming administration about the rules. Though companies in China have begun to develop their own A.I. chips, the global market for such semiconductors is dominated by U.S. companies, particularly Nvidia. That dominance has given the U.S. government the ability to regulate the flow of A.I. technology worldwide, by restricting U.S. company exports. Companies have protested those limitations, saying the restrictions could hamper innocuous or even beneficial types of computing, anger U.S. allies and ultimately push global buyers into buying non-American products, like those made by China. In a statement, Ned Finkle, Nvidia's vice president for government affairs, called the rule "unprecedented and misguided" and said it "threatens to derail innovation and economic growth worldwide." "Rather than mitigate any threat, the new Biden rules would only weaken America's global competitiveness, undermining the innovation that has kept the U.S. ahead," he said. Brad Smith, the president of Microsoft, said in a statement that the company was confident it could "comply fully with this rule's high security standards and meet the technology needs of countries and customers around the world that rely on us." The rules, which run more than 200 pages, also set up a system in which companies that operate data centers, like Microsoft and Google, can apply for special government accreditations. In return for following certain security standards, these companies can then trade in A.I. chips more freely around the globe. The companies will still have to agree to keep 75 percent of their total A.I. computing power within the United States or allied countries, and to locate no more than 7 percent of their computing power in any single other nation. The rules also set up the first controls on weights for A.I. models, the parameters unique to each model that determine how artificial intelligence makes its predictions. Companies setting up data centers abroad will be required to adopt security standards to protect this intellectual property and prevent adversaries from gaining access to them. Artificial intelligence is quickly transforming how scientists carry out research, how companies allocate tasks between their employees and how militaries operate. While A.I. has many beneficial uses, U.S. officials have grown more concerned that it could enable the development of new weapons, help countries surveil dissidents and otherwise upend the global balance of power. Jimmy Goodrich, a senior adviser for technology analysis at the RAND Corporation, said the rules would create a framework for protecting U.S. security interests while still allowing firms to compete abroad. "They are also forward-looking, trying to preserve U.S. and allied-led supply chains before they are offshored to the highest subsidy bidder," he said.

Biden's administration proposes new rules on exporting AI chips, provoking an industry pushback

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Biden administration is proposing a new framework for the exporting of the advanced computer chips used to develop artificial intelligence, an attempt to balance national security concerns about the technology with the economic interests of producers and other countries. But the framework proposed Monday also raised concerns of chip industry executives who say the rules would limit access to existing chips used for video games and restrict in 120 countries the chips used for data centers and AI products. Mexico, Portugal, Israel and Switzerland are among the nations that could have limited access. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on a call with reporters previewing the framework that it's "critical" to preserve America's leadership in AI and the development of AI-related computer chips. The fast-evolving AI technology enables computers to produce novels, make scientific research breakthroughs, automate driving and foster a range of other transformations that could reshape economies and warfare. "As AI becomes more powerful, the risks to our national security become even more intense," Raimondo said. The framework "is designed to safeguard the most advanced AI technology and ensure that it stays out of the hands of our foreign adversaries but also enabling the broad diffusion and sharing of the benefits with partner countries." White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan stressed that the framework would ensure that the most cutting-edge aspects of AI would be developed within the United States and with its closest allies, instead of possibly getting offshored such as the battery and renewable energy sectors. A tech industry group, the Information Technology Industry Council, warned Raimondo in a letter last week that a hastily implemented new rule from the Democratic administration could fragment global supply chains and put U.S. companies at a disadvantage. "While we share the U.S. government's commitment to national and economic security, the rule's potential risks to U.S. global leadership in AI cannot be emphasized enough," said a statement from Naomi Wilson, the group's senior vice president for Asia and global trade policy. She called for a more extensive consultation with the tech industry. One industry executive, who is familiar with the framework and insisted on anonymity to discuss it, said the proposed restrictions would limit access to chips already used for video games, despite claims made otherwise by the government. The executive said it would also limit which companies could build data centers abroad. Because the framework includes a 120-day comment period, the incoming Republican administration of President-elect Donald Trump could ultimately determine the rules for the sales abroad of advanced computer chips. This sets up a scenario in which Trump will have to balance economic interests with the need to keep the United States and its allies safe. Government officials said they felt the need to act quickly in hopes of preserving what is perceived to be America's six- to 18-month advantage on AI over rivals such as China, a head start that could easily erode if competitors were able to stockpile the chips and make further gains. Ned Finkle, vice president of external affairs at Nvidia, said in a statement that the prior Trump administration had helped create the foundation for AI's development and that the proposed framework would hurt innovation without achieving the stated national security goals. "While cloaked in the guise of an 'anti-China' measure, these rules would do nothing to enhance U.S. security," he said. "The new rules would control technology worldwide, including technology that is already widely available in mainstream gaming PCs and consumer hardware." Under the framework, roughly 20 key allies and partners would face no restrictions on accessing chips, but other countries would face caps on the chips they could import, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House. The allies without restrictions include Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. Users outside of these close allies could purchase up to 50,000 graphics processing units per country. There would also be government-to-government deals which could bump up the cap to 100,000 if their renewable energy and technological security goals are aligned with the United States. Institutions in certain countries could also apply for a legal status that would let them purchase up to 320,000 advanced graphics processing units over two years. Still, there would be limits as to how much AI computational capacity could be placed abroad by companies and other institutions. Also, computer chip orders equivalent to 1,700 advanced graphics processing units would not need a license to import or count against the national chip cap, among the other standards set by the framework. The exception for the 1,700 graphics processing units would likely help to meet the orders for universities and medical institutions, as opposed to data centers.

Biden administration AI chip export rules trigger industry backlash and global concerns

Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years. TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust. What just happened? In its final days of power, the Biden administration is seeking to impose new rules for exporting advanced computer chips. Not surprisingly, there has been pushback from the industry and companies such as Nvidia, which make no bones about preferring the Trump administration's approach to regulation. The Biden administration has unveiled a new framework for exporting advanced computer chips used in artificial intelligence development. Under the new rules, approximately 20 key allies and partners would face no restrictions on accessing chips, while other countries would face import caps. The unrestricted list includes Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. However, the proposed restrictions would affect 120 countries, including Mexico, Portugal, Israel, and Switzerland, potentially limiting their access to chips needed for AI data centers and products. The announcement has sparked significant industry pushback and raised concerns among chip industry executives and European Union officials. The Information Technology Industry Council warned Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo that a hastily implemented rule could fragment global supply chains and disadvantage U.S. companies. Similarly, the Semiconductor Industry Association expressed disappointment that the policy was being "rushed out the door" before a presidential transition. Speaking anonymously to The Associated Press, one industry executive familiar with the proposed rules told the publication that the restrictions would limit access to chips already used for video games, contradicting government claims. The executive also stated that the framework would restrict which companies could build data centers abroad. The Biden administration's rationale for the framework stems from the perceived need to act quickly to preserve America's estimated six- to 18-month advantage in AI over rivals like China. Officials fear this lead could rapidly erode if competitors were able to stockpile chips and make further advancements. However, the proposed rules have raised objections from EU officials, who argue that selling advanced AI chips to EU members represents an economic opportunity for the U.S. rather than a security risk. US chipmakers have expressed similar concerns. In response to the announcement, Nvidia released a statement expressing concern that the new "AI Diffusion" restrictions threaten to derail worldwide "innovation and economic growth" and undermine previous efforts to create a successful environment for AI development. Nvidia argued that the framework, which it described as a "200+ page regulatory morass," would impose bureaucratic control over how America's leading semiconductors, computers, systems, and software are designed and marketed globally. Perhaps as part of the tech industry's campaign to curry favor with the incoming Trump administration, Nvidia's statement also praised the previous administration's approach to AI development. "The first Trump Administration laid the foundation for America's current strength and success in AI, fostering an environment where US industry could compete and win on merit without compromising national security." The company concluded by expressing its desire for a return to policies that strengthen American leadership, bolster the economy, and preserve the country's competitive edge in AI. As the framework includes a 120-day comment period, the incoming Republican administration could ultimately determine the final rules for the sale of advanced computer chips abroad. This transition of power adds another layer of uncertainty to an already complex and contentious issue that will shape the future of AI development and international technological competition.

US tightens its grip on AI chip flows across the globe

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. government said on Monday it would further restrict artificial intelligence chip and technology exports, divvying up the world to keep advanced computing power in the U.S. and among its allies while finding more ways to block China's access. The new regulations will cap the number of AI chips that can be exported to most countries and allow unlimited access to U.S. AI technology for America's closest allies, while also maintaining a block on exports to China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. The lengthy new rules unveiled in the final days of outgoing President Joe Biden's administration go beyond China and are aimed at helping the U.S. keep its dominant status in AI by controlling it around the world. "The U.S. leads AI now - both AI development and AI chip design, and it's critical that we keep it that way," U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said. The regulations cap a four-year Biden administration effort to hobble China's access to advanced chips that can enhance its military capabilities and seek to maintain U.S. leadership in AI by closing loopholes and adding new guard rails to control the flow of chips and global development of AI. While it is unclear how President-elect Donald Trump's incoming administration will enforce the new rules, the two administrations share similar views on the competitive threat from China. The regulation is set to take effect 120 days from publication, giving the Trump administration time to weigh in. New limits will be placed on advanced graphics processing units (GPUs), which are used to power data centers needed to train AI models. Most are made by Santa Clara, California-based Nvidia, while Advanced Micro Devices also sells AI chips. Major cloud service providers, such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon, will be able to seek global authorizations to build data centers, a powerful part of the new rules that will exempt their projects from the country quotas on AI chips. To obtain a stamp of approval, authorized companies must abide by stringent conditions and restrictions, including security requirements, reporting demands and a plan or track record of respecting human rights. Until now, the Biden administration had imposed sweeping restrictions on China's access to advanced chips and the equipment to produce them, updating the controls annually to tighten restrictions and capture countries at risk of diverting the technology to China. NVIDIA FEARS 'OVERREACH' Because the rules alter the landscape for AI chips and data centers around the world, powerful industry voices criticized the plan even before it was published. Nvidia on Monday called the rule "sweeping overreach" and said the White House would be clamping down on "technology that is already available in mainstream gaming PCs and consumer hardware." Data center provider Oracle argued earlier this month the rules would hand "most of the global AI and GPU market to our Chinese competitors." The rules impose worldwide licensing requirements on certain chips, with exceptions, and also set controls for what are known as "model weights" of the most advanced "closed-weight" AI models. Model weights help determine decision making in machine learning, and are generally the most valuable elements of an AI model. The regulation divides the world into three tiers. About 18 countries, including Japan, Britain, South Korea and the Netherlands, will essentially be exempt from the rules. Some 120 other countries, including Singapore, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will face country caps. And arms-embargoed countries like Russia, China and Iran will be barred from receiving the technology altogether. In addition, U.S. headquartered providers likely to receive global authorizations such as AWS and Microsoft will be allowed to deploy only 50% of their total AI computing power outside the United States, no more than 25% outside of the Tier 1 countries, and no more than 7% in a single non-Tier 1 country. AI has the potential to increase access to healthcare, education and food, among other benefits, but also can help develop biological and other weapons, support cyberattacks and assist with surveillance and other human rights abuses. "The U.S. has to be prepared for rapid increases in AI's capability in the coming years, which could have transformative impact on the economy and on our national security," U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said. (Reporting by Karen Freifeld in New York; Editing by Chris Sanders and Jamie Freed)

Why Biden Is Rushing to Restrict AI Chip Exports

The Biden Administration's move on Jan. 13 to curb exports on the advanced computer chips used to power artificial intelligence (AI) arrived in the wake of two major events over the Christmas holidays that rattled the world of AI. First, OpenAI released its latest model, o3, which achieved an 88% on a set of difficult reasoning tests on which no AI system had previously scored above 5%. "All intuition about AI capabilities will need to get updated" in light of the results, said Francois Chollet, an AI researcher at Google and a prominent skeptic of the argument that "artificial general intelligence" (AGI) would be achieved any time soon. Second, the Chinese company DeepSeek released an open-source AI model that outperformed any American open-source language model, including Meta's Llama series. The achievement surprised many AI researchers and U.S. officials, who had believed China lagged behind in terms of AI capabilities. Somehow, DeepSeek had managed to create a world-class AI model in spite of a global embargo, led by the U.S. government, on the sale of advanced AI chips to China. Taken together, the two developments made something clear: "I think AGI will probably get developed during this president's term," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told Bloomberg in January, meaning that technology powerful enough to carry out economically valuable work and make new scientific discoveries by itself would emerge in the next four years under U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. What's more: China appeared to be catching up in the race to get there first. For some U.S. officials, those realizations only underlined what they had been arguing for years: restricting China's access to AI was now essential for U.S. national security. Whichever superpower achieves AGI first, the thinking goes, is likely to obtain a decisive strategic advantage, reap new scientific discoveries, wield powerful new weapons and surveillance technologies, and leave its competitor's economy in the rear-view mirror. Read More: AI Models Are Getting Smarter. New Tests Are Racing To Catch Up. Under Biden, the U.S. government had intensified a policy that began during Trump's first term: using the power of export controls to limit the number of advanced chips that China could obtain to impede its attempts to reach parity with the U.S. on AI. Despite measures that made the export of advanced chips to China illegal in 2022, Beijing had nevertheless succeeded in stockpiling thousands of chips to build its own AI systems thanks to an international smuggling network. The pure power of DeepSeek v3 strongly suggested that those chips were being used to train AI at the cutting edge. And so, with just a week until Trump's return to the White House, the Biden Administration added finishing touches to its existing chip sanctions. The new rules attempt to make it even harder for China to obtain cutting-edge AI chips via smuggling, by establishing new quotas and license requirements for the sale of advanced chips to all but America's closest allies. If the Trump Administration does not act to repeal the measure, the policy will take effect in 120 days. "I think it is quite likely that the Trump Administration will find this policy appealing, and the reason is that we are in a critical moment in AI technology competition with China," says Greg Allen, director of the Wadhwani Center for AI and Advanced Technologies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington think tank. Contrary to rumors of AI's progress reaching a plateau, OpenAI's o3 model shows new capabilities are continuing to emerge rapidly, Allen says, leading many in Washington and Silicon Valley to bring forward their predictions of when they think AGI will arrive. And while Trump himself is unpredictable, many of the aides and policymakers set to occupy senior positions in his Administration are China hawks. "It matters a lot that the United States gets there before China," says Allen, who supports the Biden Administration's new rules. "It is a pretty decisive move to make life much harder for China's AI ecosystem." Read More: How Sam Altman Is Thinking About AGI in 2025. Trump will face appeals from those urging him to repeal the new rules. Nvidia, which controls more than 90% of the U.S. AI chip industry, blasted the Biden Administration in a statement, arguing that the restrictions would hand market share to China. "By attempting to rig market outcomes and stifle competition -- the lifeblood of innovation -- the Biden Administration's new rule threatens to squander America's hard-won technological advantage," said the statement, authored by Nvidia's president of government affairs Ned Finkle. The company also flattered Trump in the same statement, crediting him with "laying the foundation for America's current strength and success in AI." Allen agrees that they might push buyers toward China. But not fast enough, he says. It takes five to 10 years for a chipmaker to turn even huge investments into machines capable of making advanced new chips, and China simply doesn't have that time, assuming AGI is on the horizon. "They are really stuck because they cannot get the advanced equipment that they need," Allen says. "The alternative to American AI chips isn't Chinese AI chips. It's no AI chips."

Biden administration proposes sweeping new restrictions on exporting AI chips | TechCrunch

With a week left in office, President Joe Biden introduced a new set of guidelines and restrictions for exporting U.S.-made AI chips. On Monday the administration announced its Interim Final Rule on AI diffusion. This ruling is meant to "provide clarity to allied and partner nations about how they can benefit from AI" and streamline licensing hurdles for chip orders, according to a White House press release. But these rules also introduce new chip sale restrictions on the majority of countries in the world. These new guidelines split countries up into three groups, according to reporting from CNN. The first group includes the U.S.'s strongest allies, like Japan and South Korea, which aren't affected by the new restrictions. The second group includes countries like China and Russia. These countries already can't buy advanced AI chips and will now face further restrictions under the new guidelines regarding most "closed" AI models. The third group, which encompasses most of the world, will now have caps on how many chips they can buy. The cap is set to 50,000 graphics processing units per country, but there are numerous ways a country can access a higher quota. This third group of countries that are neither the U.S.'s strongest allies, nor enemies, which includes places like Mexico, Portugal, and Israel, among many others, are arguably the most affected by the changes, CNN reported. The restrictions on this group of countries are meant to prevent adversaries like China and Russia from buying chips through them, but will also hurt the adoption of AI in these countries in the process. Nvidia released a statement Monday that called the proposed rules "unprecedented and misguided" and added that they would "derail" innovation and economic growth worldwide. These proposals are meant to build off of guidance that the Biden administration released in October 2022 and October 2023. Today's proposal also includes a 120-day comment period, but the rules will take effect before that period is over, according to CNN reporting. While this news is causing quite the stir in the AI community, with a new administration taking office next week, the conversation around chip export restrictions could look completely different by the end of the month.

Biden's sweeping new AI export controls cover most of the world

The new rules are intended to constrain China's development of artificial intelligence. Some in the U.S. tech industry fear they will drive other nations to work more with Chinese technology. The Biden administration on Monday announced unprecedented new export controls on computer chips and other technology crucial to advanced artificial intelligence projects. The restrictions are intended to slow China's development of AI, and tighten U.S. government control over the fast-growing industry. The new policy imposes quotas on sales of powerful chips known as GPUs to most countries in the world, in an attempt to block Chinese efforts to circumvent earlier export controls imposed over the past two years. It also limits American companies from sharing the full technical details of the most advanced AI models, software that underpins tools like ChatGPT, to all but a handful of close U.S. allies. "The U.S. leads the world in AI now, both AI development and AI chip design, and it's critical that we keep it that way," Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a briefing with reporters ahead of Monday's announcement. The controls will be implemented using the Commerce Department's power to set export regulations. Anticipation of the rules sparked debate inside the tech industry in recent weeks. Some AI experts are unconvinced the United States can best retain its technological leadership by erecting high walls to keep innovations at home or in the hands of close allies. Traditionally, tech firms have been allowed to aggressively pursue overseas sales to all buyers. "This is definitely a departure from how we've thought about technology since the early '90s and the growth of the internet," said Peter Harrell, a former Biden administration economic official who is now a nonresident fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It is in many ways conceptually more consistent with the way we thought about the role of technologies ... during the Cold War." Semiconductor industry representatives criticized the new rules, saying they could in fact boost China's chip industry and competitiveness in AI. "The extreme 'country cap' policy will affect mainstream computers in countries around the world, doing nothing to promote national security but rather pushing the world to alternative technologies," Ned Finkle, vice president of government affairs at Nvidia, which dominates the market for GPUs, said in a statement. The rules are among the final policy moves from the Biden administration before Trump's inauguration. Other measures aimed at preserving U.S. tech dominance are expected in the coming days, according to two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss unannounced policy plans. They include an executive order allowing construction of data centers and electrical power plants on federal lands, as previously reported by The Washington Post, and controls targeted at semiconductor factories that produce chips for Chinese customers. The U.S. and Chinese governments have each said AI will be central to future military and economic competition between the two superpowers. Some U.S. military experts argue that the nation should consider adopting any policy that can impede its chief geopolitical rival's attempts to advance AI. "I think the White House views the next few years as all that we have before a very genuinely, transformational moment in AI and it matters a lot that the United States gets there first," said Gregory Allen, who previously worked on AI policy at the Pentagon and is now a director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank. The Biden White House has admitted that China has managed to circumvent previous U.S. sanctions aimed at hobbling its development of advanced AI, in part by sourcing U.S. chips and other technology indirectly, via other countries. The new restrictions announced Monday sort the countries of the world into three tiers. Sales of the GPUs necessary for major AI projects and transfers of powerful AI software are unrestricted to close U.S. allies such as the United Kingdom, Japan and Taiwan. Exports of high-end AI chips and algorithms are barred completely for nations already blocked from U.S. arms sales, including Iran, Russia, and Venezuela. Most of the world, including India, Brazil and some NATO members such as Poland, falls into a third category subject to intermediate export controls. Quotas will bar companies in those nations from importing more than 1,700 high-end GPUs each year. The cap is intended to allow most AI projects but prevent completion of large, GPU-stuffed data centers of the kind needed to develop powerful new AI models. American companies will have to obtain approval from the U.S. government to build large data centers in countries subject to the intermediate controls. Foreign companies will be able to seek U.S. permission for such projects on the condition of strict security requirements and auditing. In the briefing, Raimondo said that the new policy is not intended to cut the world off from AI innovations and is tailored to restrict only overseas development of the most advanced AI technology. But the AI export rules have drawn criticism from some U.S. tech companies, who fear they will cause steep falls in their international sales. Oracle Executive Vice President Ken Glueck blasted the expected restrictions in a blog post last month as "dystopian," warning that they might result in U.S. companies losing their global lead in cloud computing. He said in an interview ahead of Monday's announcement that the administration's aim to restrict technology from reaching China "certainly makes sense," but he was concerned the rules would be unnecessarily restrictive. Spokespeople for OpenAI and Google declined to comment on the new policy. "We're confident we can comply fully with this rule's high security standards and meet the technology needs of countries and customers around the world that rely on us," said Microsoft President Brad Smith. American cloud providers such as Microsoft and Google may gain an overseas advantage from the new export rules, because of the way U.S. companies will obtain approval to build new AI data centers via a different process than foreign firms. The new rules allow for a 120-day comment period, ensuring that the incoming Trump administration will have the final say on whether they take effect. President-elect Donald Trump's advisers and cabinet picks include China hawks who may favor stricter rules, but the incoming president has indicated that he aims to be more accommodating to U.S. tech companies. Evan Halper contributed to this report.

US Tightens AI Chip Exports Restrictions Ahead of Trump's Inauguration - Decrypt

On Monday, the Biden administration unveiled sweeping restrictions on the export of artificial intelligence chips and related technologies as President Joe Biden prepares to leave office. Announced just days before Donald Trump's transition as the President, the "Interim Final Rule on Artificial Intelligence Diffusion" seeks to maintain U.S. dominance in AI while preventing adversaries such as from exploiting advanced systems for malicious purposes. "To enhance U.S. national security and economic strength, it is essential that we do not offshore this critical technology and that the world's AI runs on American rails," according to a statment from the White House. The restrictions impose caps on the number of advanced graphics processing units and other AI-related technologies that can be exported to most countries. While the U.S. and 18 of its closest allies, including the UK and Japan, are exempt, countries like China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea remain under strict bans. The regulations also introduce new licensing requirements for exports to over 120 nations, with provisions for foreign governments to sign agreements for eased restrictions. Entities meeting rigorous security standards can gain special statuses, such as Universal Verified End User (UVEU) or National Verified End User (NVEU), allowing them to benefit from advanced GPUs and scale AI capabilities responsibly. UVEU entities can allocate up to 7% of their global AI capacity outside close allies, while NVEU entities can purchase GPUs equivalent to 320,000 advanced units over two years. Smaller, low-risk chip orders -- often used by universities and research institutions -- will bypass the licensing process entirely. The announcement has drawn sharp criticism from the tech industry. Chipmaker giant Nvidia criticized the policy as "unprecedented and misguided," warning that it could undermine U.S. innovation and global competitiveness. "While cloaked in the guise of an 'anti-China' measure, these rules would do nothing to enhance U.S. security," Nvidia's president of government affairs, Ned Finkle, said in a statement. Currently, Nvidia sells AI chips to China, but they are scaled-down versions designed to comply with U.S. export restrictions imposed in 2022. These chips with reduced computational power are produced to meet demand in the Chinese market without breaching U.S. security policies. The new rule also caps chip exports to other non-allied nations at 50,000 GPUs per country, ensuring that U.S. technology supports legitimate uses, such as healthcare and education, without enabling adversaries. Nations that align their AI and export control policies with the U.S. can double their chip caps via government-to-government agreements under the new rules. The rules are set to take effect mid-May, providing time for adjustments under Trump's leadership following his inauguration on January 20. "We hope that the next administration takes full advantage of those 120 days to listen to experts, industry, industry players, partner countries, consider their input, and I fully expect the next administration may make changes as a result of that input," US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said.

US to have unlimited access to AI chips

Image credit: Narumon Bowonkitwanchai/ Getty Images The US government said on Monday, that it would further restrict artificial intelligence chip and technology exports, divvying up the world to keep advanced computing power in the United States and among its allies while finding more ways to block China's access. The new regulations will cap the number of AI chips that can be exported to most countries and allow unlimited access to US AI technology for America's closest allies. Unveiled in the final days of outgoing President Joe Biden's administration, the lengthy new rules go beyond China and are aimed at helping the United States maintain its dominant status in AI by controlling it around the world. "The US leads AI now - both AI development and AI chip design, and it's critical that we keep it that way," Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said. The regulations cap a four-year Biden administration effort to hobble China's access to advanced chips that can enhance its military capabilities and seek to maintain US leadership in AI by closing loopholes and adding new guard rails to control the flow of chips and global development of AI. While it is unclear how President-elect Donald Trump's incoming administration will enforce the new rules, the two administrations share similar views on the competitive threat from China. The regulation is set to take effect 120 days from publication, giving the Trump administration time to weigh in. New limits will be placed on advanced graphics processing units (GPUs), which are used to power data centers needed to train AI models. Most are made by Santa Clara, California-based Nvidia, while Advanced Micro Devices also sells AI chips. Nvidia shares were down about 5 per cent while AMD shares were down about 1 per cent in morning trading. Major cloud service providers such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon will be able to seek global authorizations to build data centers. Once approved, the cloud providers would no longer need export licenses for AI chips, allowing them to build data centers in countries that cannot import enough chips because of the US-imposed quotas. Shares of all three companies were down about 1 per cent. To obtain a stamp of approval, authorized companies must abide by stringent conditions and restrictions, including security requirements, reporting demands and a plan or track record of respecting human rights. Until now, the Biden administration had imposed sweeping restrictions on China's access to advanced chips and the equipment to produce them, updating the controls annually to tighten restrictions and capture countries at risk of diverting the technology to China. Nvidia fears 'overreach' Because the rules alter the landscape for AI chips and data centers around the world, powerful industry voices criticized the plan even before it was published. Nvidia on Monday called the rules "sweeping overreach" and said the White House would be clamping down on "technology that is already available in mainstream gaming PCs and consumer hardware." Data center provider Oracle argued earlier this month that the rules would hand "most of the global AI and GPU market to our Chinese competitors." The restrictions do not apply to gaming chips. The rules impose worldwide licensing requirements on advanced chips, with exceptions, and also set controls for what are known as "model weights" of the most advanced "closed-weight" AI models. Model weights help determine decision making in machine learning, and are generally the most valuable elements of an AI model. AI has the potential to increase access to healthcare, education and food, among other benefits, but also can help develop biological and other weapons, support cyberattacks and assist with surveillance and other human rights abuses. "The US has to be prepared for rapid increases in AI's capability in the coming years, which could have transformative impact on the economy and on our national security," US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said. Read: US clears export of advanced AI chips to UAE under Microsoft deal

Biden to further limit Nvidia AI chip exports in final push

President Joe Biden's administration plans one additional round of restrictions on the export of artificial intelligence chips from the likes of Nvidia Corp. just days before leaving office, a final push in his effort to keep advanced technologies out of the hands of China and Russia. The U.S. wants to curb the sale of AI chips used in data centers on both a country and company basis, with the goal of concentrating AI development in friendly nations and getting businesses around the world to align with American standards, according to people familiar with the matter. The result would be an expansion of semiconductor trade restrictions to most of the world -- an attempt to control the spread of AI technology at a time of soaring demand. The regulations, which could be issued as soon as Friday, would create three tiers of chip curbs, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. At the top level, a small number of U.S. allies would maintain essentially unmitigated access to American chips. A group of adversaries, meanwhile, would be effectively blocked from importing the semiconductors. And the vast majority of the world would face limits on the total computing power that can go to one country. Companies headquartered in nations in that last group would be able to bypass their national limits -- and get their own, significantly higher caps -- by agreeing to a set of U.S. government security requirements and human rights standards, according to the people. That type of designation -- called a validated end user, or VEU -- aims to create a set of trusted entities that develop and deploy AI in secure environments around the world. Shares of Nvidia, the leading maker of AI chips, dipped more than 1% in late trading after Bloomberg reported on the plan. They had been up 4.3% this year through the close, following stratospheric gains in 2023 and 2024 that turned the company into the world's most valuable chipmaker. Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Nvidia's biggest challenger in AI processors, dropped less than 1% in extended trading. Nvidia objected to the proposal in a statement. "A last-minute rule restricting exports to most of the world would be a major shift in policy that would not reduce the risk of misuse but would threaten economic growth and U.S. leadership," Nvidia said. "The worldwide interest in accelerated computing for everyday applications is a tremendous opportunity for the U.S. to cultivate, promoting the economy and adding U.S. jobs." A representative of the White House's National Security Council declined to comment. The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security, which is in charge of chip export controls, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The measures build on years of curbs that already limit the ability of American chipmakers like Nvidia and AMD to sell advanced processors in China and Russia. The U.S. has also sought to prevent adversary nations from accessing cutting-edge technology through intermediaries in places like the Middle East and Southeast Asia. The latest draft rules are part of that global effort. The rules follow months of debate over how quickly and broadly to deploy U.S. chips to global data centers. Because American chips far outperform Chinese ones at AI tasks, companies and entire countries have indicated that they're willing to jump through hoops to gain access to U.S. technology. That gives the U.S. a unique role as a gatekeeper -- and a potentially significant amount of leverage to shape global AI development. The U.S. has "a serious once-in-a-generation moment to leverage U.S. AI technology," the top Democrat and Republican on the House China Select Committee wrote last week in a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. "Demand for U.S. AI technology is an opportunity to pry both companies and countries out of Beijing's orbit." The first tier established in the new rules includes the U.S. and 18 allies, such as Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, according to people familiar with the matter. Companies can freely deploy computing power in those places, and firms headquartered there can apply for blanket U.S. government permission to ship chips to data centers in most other parts of the world. That's provided that no more than a quarter of their total computing power is located outside of Tier 1 countries, and no more than 7% in any one Tier 2 country. Companies would also have to abide by U.S. government security requirements. Additionally, U.S.-headquartered companies that apply for that type of permission -- a so-called universal VEU designation -- have to keep at least half of their total computing power on American soil, people familiar with the matter said. The broader goal of these regulations is ensuring that the U.S. and allied countries always have more computing power than the rest of the world. Restrictive tiers The vast majority of countries fall into the second tier of restrictions, which establishes maximum levels of computing power that can go to any one nation -- equivalent to about 50,000 graphic processing units, or GPUs, from 2025 to 2027, the people said. But individual companies can access significantly higher limits -- that grow over time -- if they apply for VEU status in each country where they wish to build data centers. Getting that approval requires a demonstrated track record of meeting U.S. government security and human rights standards, or at least a credible plan for doing so. Security requirements span physical, cyber and personnel concerns. If companies obtain national VEU status, their chip imports won't count against the maximum totals for that country -- a measure to encourage firms to work with the U.S. government and adopt American AI standards. The third, most restrictive tier affects China, Macau and all countries for which the U.S. maintains an arms embargo -- about two dozen nations in total, according to the people. Shipments to data centers in those places are broadly prohibited. Like Nvidia, the Semiconductor Industry Association trade group opposes the move. "A policy change of this scope and significance should not be rushed out the door during a period of presidential transition and without meaningful input from industry," the association said in a statement. "Too much is at stake here to circumvent a deliberative process. Our country needs to get this right so we can compete and win globally." Model weights In addition to the semiconductor controls, the new rules also limit the export of closed AI model weights, which are the numerical parameters that software uses to process data and make predictions or decisions. Companies would be prohibited from hosting powerful closed model weights in Tier 3 countries, like China and Russia, and would have to abide by security standards to host those weights in Tier 2 countries. That means the controls on model weights don't apply to companies that obtain universal VEU status, one of the people said. Open weight models -- which allow the public to access underlying code -- aren't affected by the rules, nor are closed models that are less powerful than an already-available open model. But if an AI company wants to fine-tune a general-purpose open weight model for a specific purpose, and that process uses a significant amount of computing power, they would need to apply for a U.S. government license to do so in a Tier 2 country. 2025 Bloomberg News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Biden's new AI chip export restrictions spark industry backlash

A new artificial intelligence chip export restriction proposed by the outgoing Biden administration has sparked a backlash from the tech industry over concerns it will stifle innovation and undermine America's leadership in the sector. In a Jan. 13 fact sheet, the White House proposed a framework that would apply cap and licensing restrictions for semiconductor sales to all but 18 allies and partners. The White House proposal has seen backlash from the tech industry. Ned Finkle, vice president of government affairs at chip giant Nvidia, said in a Jan. 13 blog post that the framework was " misguided " and could derail "innovation and economic growth." "The new rules would control technology worldwide, including technology that is already widely available in mainstream gaming PCs and consumer hardware," he said. "Rather than mitigate any threat, the new Biden rules would only weaken America's global competitiveness, undermining the innovation that has kept the US ahead," Finkle added. It comes as more firms have begun ramping up AI expansion, with Microsoft announcing in September last year it was establishing two AI centers in Abu Dhabi, among other major AI investments through 2024. Under the proposal, the White House has proposed importing caps of up to 50,000 semiconductors per country that would apply to all but 18 countries. Government-to-government deals could bump up the cap to 100,000. Institutions in certain countries could also apply to purchase up to 320,000 microchips over two years. Orders up to 1,700 units would not need a license to import or count against the cap. Daniel Castro, vice president of the tech think tank Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, argued that pressuring other nations to choose between the US and its main competitor, China, would only result in "alienating key partners." Related: TSMC becomes first Asian company to reach $1T as AI demand surges "Confronted with such an ultimatum, many countries may opt for the side offering them uninterrupted access to the AI technologies vital for their economic growth and digital futures -- and currently, only one country is threatening to cut them off from these technologies," Castro said. Castro says the framework would also harm US companies with stringent regulatory burdens that foreign competitors can evade, undercutting American firms in the global market. John Neufferthe, president and CEO of the Semiconductor Industry Association, said that policy was being rushed out the door without any input from the industry. "The new rule risks causing unintended and lasting damage to America's economy and global competitiveness in semiconductors and AI by ceding strategic markets to our competitors," he said. "The stakes are high, and the timing is fraught." On the other hand, US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo supported the move, saying in a Jan. 13 statement the policy would protect against the national security risks associated with AI while also allowing the US to lead in technological innovation. "Managing these very real national security risks requires taking into account the evolution of AI technology, the capabilities of our adversaries, and the desire of our allies to share in the benefits of this technology," she said. The new restrictions face a 120-day comment period and will ultimately be left up to President-elect Donald Trump's new administration to enact.

Biden's final AI regulations target closed models, spark open-source debate

As President Joe Biden approaches the end of his term, his administration has unveiled comprehensive regulations on AI technology, addressing national security concerns and economic competitiveness. The Interim Final Rule on Artificial Intelligence Diffusion establishes restrictions on high-end chips and closed-weight AI models, while maintaining exemptions for open-weight models. The rule allows a 120-day window for public comment and a one-year adjustment period for affected industries. Notably absent from this initial regulatory framework are cloud service provider (CSP) platforms, leaving critical questions about computing power distribution across data centers unaddressed. Taiwan's strategic position Lee-Feng Chien, advisor to the Economic Development Council of the Executive Yuan, emphasized Taiwan's inclusion among 18 allies under the new framework. Chien cautioned that excluding Taiwan would impact exports of chips produced by TSMC, ultimately disadvantaging the US. He further noted that Nvidia, a leading AI chip supplier, will likely need to adjust its overseas market strategies in response to these restrictions. "While the regulations primarily control who can purchase high-end chips from Nvidia and TSMC, the greater challenge lies in overseeing computing power centers," Chien explained. He suggested that additional measures might follow, particularly to prevent unauthorized foreign access to restricted chips and computational resources. Open versus closed model dynamics The proposed rules aim to protect closed-weight AI models by restricting model weight transfers to untrusted parties and implementing safety standards against unauthorized access. Currently, open-weight models remain unregulated, an exemption based on three key factors: the perceived superiority of closed-weight models in capabilities, the academic and research community's dependence on open-weight resources, and the practical challenges of monitoring freely available models. Closed-weight models, requiring payment, are inherently easier to track and control. Security implications and industry response Concerns about open-weight AI models intensified after reports emerged that China had utilized Meta's open-source Llama model for military purposes. This development sparked speculation about potential future restrictions on open-source models, with Meta likely to face an initial impact. However, current regulations reflect the assessment that open-weight models, despite rapid advancement, still lag behind their closed counterparts in capability. Meta and Google dominate the open-source model sector, with Meta preparing to release Llama 3.1 in the second quarter of 2024, featuring 405 billion parameters. Meta's internal evaluations indicate this model could compete with offerings from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. Google maintains a dual approach, developing both large-scale closed models and smaller open models, such as its Gemma series. Cloud computing challenges The regulatory landscape faces ongoing challenges in cloud computing. In 2023, several US senators proposed sanctions against Chinese firms, including Huawei Cloud and Alibaba Cloud, citing security concerns. Industry experts have raised alarms about Chinese entities potentially exploiting American cloud platforms to access high-end computing resources. While cloud quotas have caps, experts warn of potential workarounds. They acknowledge the complexity of regulating cloud platforms, urging corporate self-discipline amid escalating US-China tensions. With Donald Trump's upcoming presidency in 2025, the future of Biden's AI regulatory framework remains uncertain.

US's AI chips export proposal receives industry pushback

Though the rules are aimed at China, they could impact some European countries including Portugal and Switzerland. The outgoing US administration is proposing a new framework for exporting advanced computer chips used to develop artificial intelligence (AI) that aims to balance national security concerns about the technology with the economic interests of producers and other countries. Yet the framework proposed on Monday also raised concerns of chip industry executives as well as officials from the European Union over export restrictions that would affect 120 countries. Mexico, Portugal, Israel and Switzerland are among the nations that could have limited access to chips needed for AI data centres and products, though much of the underlying focus is aimed at China. "If it's China and not the United States determining the future of AI on the planet, I think that the stakes of that are just profound," said White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Monday. With just a week before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, Biden officials made clear it would be up to Trump to follow through with or drop an approach that Sullivan said "shouldn't be a partisan issue at all". Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said it's "critical" to preserve America's leadership in AI and the development of AI-related computer chips. Fast-evolving AI technology enables computers to produce novels, make scientific research breakthroughs, automate driving, and foster a range of other transformations that could reshape economies and warfare. Raimondo said the framework "is designed to safeguard the most advanced AI technology and ensure that it stays out of the hands of our foreign adversaries but also enabling the broad diffusion and sharing of the benefits with partner countries". While the Biden administration had already restricted exports to adversaries such as China and Russia, some of those controls had loopholes and the new rule would set limits on a much broader group of countries. Data centres built in the Middle East and Southeast Asia are of particular concern to US officials, said Ed Mills, an analyst at Raymond James. "Chinese companies have used those data centres to build AI models with technology that they would not be able to import to China itself," Mills said. A tech industry group, the Information Technology Industry Council, warned Raimondo in a letter last week that a hastily implemented new rule from the Democratic administration could fragment global supply chains and put US companies at a disadvantage. The China-based data centre developer GDS Holdings is among those expected to be affected. Its stock dropped more than 18 per cent on Monday. Because the framework includes a 120-day comment period, the incoming Republican administration could ultimately determine the rules for the sales abroad of advanced computer chips designed mostly by California companies like Nvidia and AMD. Government officials said they felt the need to act quickly in hopes of preserving what is perceived to be America's six- to 18-month advantage on AI over rivals such as China, a head start that could easily erode if competitors were able to stockpile the chips and make further gains. Ned Finkle, vice president of external affairs at Nvidia, said in a statement that the prior Trump administration had helped create the foundation for AI's development and that the proposed framework would hurt innovation without achieving the stated national security goals. "While cloaked in the guise of an 'anti-China' measure, these rules would do nothing to enhance US security," he said. "The new rules would control technology worldwide, including technology that is already widely available in mainstream gaming PCs and consumer hardware". Under the framework, roughly 20 key allies and partners would face no restrictions on accessing chips, but other countries would face caps on the chips they could import, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House. The allies without restrictions include Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. But the limits to other countries within the European Union raised objections from EU officials on Monday who said selling advanced AI chips to EU members represents an economic opportunity for the US and "not a security risk". Sullivan stressed that the framework would ensure that the most cutting-edge aspects of AI would be developed within the United States and with its closest allies, instead of possibly getting offshored such as the battery and renewable energy sectors. Users outside these close allies could purchase up to 50,000 graphics processing units per country. There would also be government-to-government deals which could bump up the cap to 100,000 if their renewable energy and technological security goals are aligned with the United States. Institutions in certain countries could also apply for a legal status that would let them purchase up to 320,000 advanced graphics processing units over two years. Still, there would be limits on how much AI computational capacity could be placed abroad by companies and other institutions. Also, computer chip orders equivalent to 1,700 advanced graphics processing units would not need a license to import or count against the national chip cap, among the other standards set by the framework. The exception for the 1,700 graphics processing units would likely help meet the orders for universities and medical institutions, as opposed to data centres. The new rules are not expected to hinder the AI-driven data centre expansion plans of leading cloud computing providers such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft because of exemptions for trusted companies seeking large clusters of advanced AI chips. "We're confident we can comply fully with this rule's high-security standards and meet the technology needs of countries and customers around the world that rely on us," said Brad Smith, Microsoft's president, in a statement Monday. Microsoft drew bipartisan scrutiny last year after it announced a $1.5 billion (€1.3 billion) investment in a technology firm based in the United Arab Emirates and overseen by the country's powerful national security adviser. Biden leaving the ultimate decision to Trump will force the incoming administration to clarify how tough it will be in countering China's AI ambitions. While some Trump allies such as US Senator Ted Cruz have already criticised the Biden approach as heavy-handed, Mills said it fits into a broader US-China trade policy that Trump himself began eight years ago. "This really started under Trump, continued under Biden, and the Biden team advanced a lot of things, but they weren't quite done with some stuff," Mills said. "It seems as if they've dropped a hot potato into the Trump administration's lap and almost dared them to walk it back".

White House unveils new curbs on exporting Nvidia AI chips

By Mackenzie Hawkins and Jenny Leonard, Bloomberg News The Tribune Content Agency The White House unveiled sweeping new limits on the sale of advanced AI chips by Nvidia Corp. and its peers, leaving the Trump administration to decide how and whether to implement curbs that have encountered fierce industry opposition. The rules, which are set to take effect in one year, establish caps on the amount of computing power that can be sold to most countries. Businesses in those places can bypass national limits by agreeing to a set of security and human rights standards, U.S. officials said Sunday. Companies will have a 120-day comment period - which is exceptionally long - to give the Trump administration time to get settled in and make changes to the rule after consulting with industry and other countries, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters ahead of the release. Raimondo stressed that the Biden administration sought to strike a balance between protecting national security and allowing trade in semiconductors to continue. Supply chain activities and gaming chips are excluded from the new curbs, she added. And Washington will waive licensing for the sale of chips with low collective computing power, such as to universities and research institutes. "This is very hard, and no rule is perfect," she said. "Managing the national security risks requires delicate trade-offs that take all of this into account." China's growing technological prowess has spurred concern in the U.S. The move to curb the sale of AI chips used in data centers on both a country and company basis has the goal of concentrating artificial intelligence development in friendly nations and getting businesses around the world to align with American standards, Bloomberg News previously reported. The Biden team discussed the measures with its successors, and one U.S. official said export controls have largely been a bipartisan national security priority. Similar to the rules for importing countries, companies in the U.S. and nearly 20 allied countries can agree to U.S. government standards and win permission to ship to the restricted nations. To get that approval, they'll have to keep the majority of their computing power in friendly territories. The approval would not extend to data centers in China, Russia, Macau and some 20 other locations for which the U.S. has an arms embargo. The U.S. has effectively banned AI chip shipments to those places. Shares of Nvidia fell nearly 2% to $133.23 on Monday. Shares of peers Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Intel Corp. also declined, in line with a broader market pullback, before recovering. The goal of the measures, which companies such as Nvidia and Oracle Corp. have warned could be catastrophic for the U.S. tech industry, is to ensure that the global development of AI aligns with American standards and relies on U.S. - not Chinese - technology. "It ensures that the infrastructure for training frontier AI, the most exquisite AI systems at the frontier, happens either in America or in the jurisdictions of our closest allies, and that that capacity does not get offshored like chips and batteries and other industries that we've had to invest hundreds of billion dollars to bring back onshore," National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters. But companies and key lawmakers have warned that the restrictions could actually drive customers toward products from Chinese companies, including the blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co., if they are unable to purchase preferred American offerings or if the associated security requirements are too onerous. Nvidia sees 'overreach' The Biden administration's rule "threatens to squander America's hard-won technological advantage" by "attempting to rig market outcomes and stifle competition," Ned Finkle, Nvidia's vice president of government affairs, said in a statement. "As the first Trump administration demonstrated, America wins through innovation, competition, and by sharing our technologies with the world - not by retreating behind a wall of government overreach," Finkle said. Senators Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell, the top Republican and Democrat on the Commerce Committee, made that argument in a December letter to Raimondo. "Such draconian restrictions would severely hinder the sale of U.S. technology abroad and risk driving foreign buyers to Chinese competitors like Huawei," they wrote. In a statement last week, ahead of the rule's official publication, Cruz said that he would consider "every tool" - including the Congressional Review Act - to protect American industry from "unnecessary overreach." The CRA allows Congress to overturn certain rules by executive agencies. China's objections China firmly objected to the new U.S. AI restrictions, criticizing the current administration for violating the rules of international trade. "The Biden administration has abused export control measures, seriously hindering normal economic and trade exchanges between countries, seriously undermining market rules and international economic and trade order, seriously affecting global scientific and technological innovation," the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement Monday. "China will take necessary measures to resolutely safeguard its own rights and interests." European officials registered their concern over the new rules and said they looked forward to "engaging constructively" with the Trump administration. "It is also in the U.S. economic and security interest that the E.U. buys advanced AI chips from the U.S. without limitations," European Commission Executive Vice President Henna Virkkunen and Commissioner Maros Sefcovic said in a statement. "We cooperate closely, in particular in the field of security, and represent an economic opportunity for the U.S., not a security risk." Other U.S. lawmakers - including the bipartisan leaders of the House China Select Committee - favor the Biden administration's approach. Jimmy Goodrich, senior adviser to RAND for technology analysis, said Chinese AI chips aren't globally competitive for now. "Due to export controls, China has been unable to produce a sufficient quantity of AI chips even for its own domestic demand, and even then, they are at least one to two generations inferior to American chips," he said. Additionally, the rules establish export controls on so-called closed model weights for the first time. They control how AI models process data and generate responses and predictions.

Biden administration announces new AI chip export controls - SiliconANGLE

Biden administration announces new AI chip export controls The Biden administration today announced new export restrictions focused on artificial intelligence chips and proprietary neural networks. The restrictions are outlined in a policy document known as the Interim Final Rule on Artificial Intelligence Diffusion. According to Axios, the goal is to prevent China from obtaining advanced AI chips through third countries. The Biden administration previously rolled out export controls that ban the sale of Nvidia Corp.'s most advanced graphics processing units and other AI hardware to China. The first focus of the rules announced today is to streamline small AI chip purchases. Orders for processors with the aggregate computing power of "up to roughly 1,700 advanced GPUs" won't require a license, the White House stated. This policy is designed is to streamline hardware procurement for organizations such as medical institutions that are using GPUs to power "clearly innocuous" machine learning projects. The new rule set likewise won't place any restrictions on AI chip sales to 18 allied countries. However, companies that are based in those countries and wish to deploy a large number of GPUs abroad must apply for Universal Verified End User, or UVEU, status. This authorization will allow them to deploy up to 7% of their AI compute capacity in international data centers. GPU sales to most other countries will be governed by a second set of rules that will cap processor shipment volumes. Organizations in those countries that meet the same criteria as companies with UVEU status can apply for a so-called National Verified End User license. According to the White House, the license will allow them to purchase AI chips with the "computational power equivalent to up to 320,000 advanced GPUs" over two years. Processor orders made by other organizations will count towards a purchase cap of 50,000 advanced GPU per country. Governments can double that number if they meet certain export control, clean energy and technology security requirements. The new rules will also expand the AI export controls that apply to "non-trusted actors." Companies will be prohibited from supplying such actors with the weights of their proprietary AI models' weights. Weights are configuration settings that play a key role in determining how a neural network analyzes input data. The ban won't apply to open-source AI models. Before implementing the new rules, the Commerce Department will give interested parties 120 days to submit feedback. "We hope that the next administration takes full advantage of those 120 days to listen to experts, industry, industry players, partner countries," said Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. The proposed rules have drawn mixed reactions. Nvidia called them misguided in a blog post. According to Axios, tech policy advocacy group Americans for Responsible Innovation expressed support for the export controls. The Associated Press reported that the rules are not expected to affect major cloud providers' ability to build more AI-optimized data centers. Microsoft Corp. president Brad Smith said in a statement that "we can comply fully with this rule's high security standards and meet the technology needs of countries and customers around the world that rely on us."

U.S. tightens its grip on AI chip flows across the globe

The U.S. government said on Monday it would further restrict artificial intelligence chip and technology exports, divvying up the world to keep advanced computing power in the U.S. and among its allies while finding more ways to block China's access. The new regulations will cap the number of AI chips that can be exported to most countries and allow unlimited access to U.S. AI technology for America's closest allies, while also maintaining a block on exports to China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. The lengthy new rules unveiled in the final days of outgoing President Joe Biden's administration go beyond China and are aimed at helping the U.S. keep its dominant status in AI by controlling it around the world. "The U.S. leads AI now - both AI development and AI chip design, and it's critical that we keep it that way," U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said. The regulations cap a four-year Biden administration effort to hobble China's access to advanced chips that can enhance its military capabilities and seek to maintain U.S. leadership in AI by closing loopholes and adding new guard rails to control the flow of chips and global development of AI. While it is unclear how President-elect Donald Trump's incoming administration will enforce the new rules, the two administrations share similar views on the competitive threat from China. The regulation is set to take effect 120 days from publication, giving the Trump administration time to weigh in. New limits will be placed on advanced graphics processing units (GPUs), which are used to power data centers needed to train AI models. Most are made by Santa Clara, California-based Nvidia, while Advanced Micro Devices also sells AI chips. Major cloud service providers, such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon, will be able to seek global authorizations to build data centers, a powerful part of the new rules that will exempt their projects from the country quotas on AI chips. To obtain a stamp of approval, authorized companies must abide by stringent conditions and restrictions, including security requirements, Until now, the Biden administration had imposed sweeping restrictions on China's access to advanced chips and the equipment to produce them, updating the controls annually to tighten restrictions and capture countries at risk of diverting the technology to China.

US announces new restrictions on AI chip exports

In recent years, Washington has expanded its efforts to curb exports of state-of-the-art chips to China, which can be used in AI and weapons systems, as Beijing's tech advancements spark concern among US policymakers. "The US leads the world in AI now -- both AI development and AI chip design -- and it's critical that we keep it that way," Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters.The United States unveiled new export rules Monday on chips used for artificial intelligence, furthering efforts to make it tough for China and other rivals to access the advanced technology in Joe Biden's final days as president. The announcement of the restrictions drew a fiery pushback from Beijing and prompted US chip industry criticism, while the European Union expressed its "concern" over the approach. In recent years, Washington has expanded its efforts to curb exports of state-of-the-art chips to China, which can be used in AI and weapons systems, as Beijing's tech advancements spark concern among US policymakers. "The US leads the world in AI now -- both AI development and AI chip design -- and it's critical that we keep it that way," Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters. The new rules update controls on chips, requiring authorizations for exports, re-exports and in-country transfers -- while also including a series of exceptions for countries considered friendly to the United States. If a country is not exempted -- and most are not -- they will face a cap on imports of advanced chips. AI data centers meanwhile will need to comply with enhanced security parameters to be able to import chips. The restrictions also tighten rules around the sharing of cutting-edge AI models. China's Commerce Ministry called the new policy "a flagrant violation" of international trade rules, vowing that Beijing would "firmly safeguard" its interests. The European Union meanwhile expressed concern about US measures and stressed that Europe did not represent a "security risk." US competitiveness The latest move drew industry criticism and warnings that it would hurt US competitiveness. Semiconductor Industry Association chief executive John Neuffer said: "We're deeply disappointed that a policy shift of this magnitude and impact is being rushed out the door days before a presidential transition and without any meaningful input from industry." He added in a statement that the rule could cause "lasting damage to America's economy and global competitiveness" by ceding key markets to rivals. Chip titan Nvidia said in a blog post that "while cloaked in the guise of an 'anti-China' measure, these rules would do nothing to enhance US security." In a white paper released Monday, OpenAI said the federal government should help the AI industry grow, adding that "responsibly exporting" cutting-edge models to allies and partners will help them stand up their own AI ecosystems. Trump decision? The rules make it "hard for our strategic competitors to use smuggling and remote access to evade our export control," White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said. They also create "incentives for our friends and partners around the world to use trusted vendors for advanced AI," he added. The new rules will take effect in 120 days, Raimondo said, giving President-elect Trump's incoming administration time to potentially make changes. Freezing the rule, however, could risk allowing China to stockpile US hardware, a senior US official told reporters. And the Computer & Communications Industry Association cautioned that the rule will hamper the ability of US firms to deploy advanced semiconductors in data centers abroad. In its post, Nvidia stressed that the first Trump term showed how the United States "wins through innovation, competition and by sharing our technologies with the world -- not by retreating behind a wall of government overreach." Trump put heavy tariffs on China during his first presidential term. But his backers in Silicon Valley could also see the rules as an undue burden on their ability to export products. On Monday, Nvidia shares lost around two percent. The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) said that pressuring countries to choose between Washington and Beijing could alienate partners and boost China's position in global AI. "Many countries may opt for the side offering them uninterrupted access to the AI technologies vital for their economic growth and digital futures," said ITIF vice president Daniel Castro.

Biden admin to announce AI rule to 'enhance' national security and economic might

It would provide "clarity" to allies about AI's benefits, the White House said. The Biden administration is rolling out a new rule that is aimed at responsible use of artificial intelligence technology. According to a press release about the rule, this action "streamlines licensing hurdles" and "provides clarity to allied and partner nations about how they can benefit from AI." The action "is designed to safeguard the most advanced AI technology and ensure that it stays out of the hands of our foreign adversaries, but also enabling the broad diffusion and sharing of the benefits with partner countries," Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said during a call with reporters about the move. "The focus is on the frontier, the most advanced AI models and the largest compute clusters," she added. The rule has a three-pronged approach, Raimondo said: "expanding and updating controls for advanced AI chips," "creating a new set of controls for the most advanced, closed AI model weights make sure they don't fall into the hands of our adversaries" and "imposing security conditions to safeguard critical technology and the largest AI clusters." She noted that some industries would not be impacted because they are not crucial to national security, including supply chain activities and gaming chips. Raimondo said that the rule is very complex and, because of that, the comment period is 120 days, longer than usual timeline for rule-making. She also noted that this rule comes with just about one week left of President Joe Biden's presidency. "I fully expect the next administration may make changes as a result of that input," Raimondo said. "So we we've provided for 120 days, which is very long comment period, and we provided for one year, 365 days for compliance for the standards at AI data centers to make sure industry is fully cited on the new rules and able to comply." But one official on the call said this effort has bipartisan support, especially because this is something that concerns national security. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that this rule has been in development for a long time with key shareholders. "There are many leading AI developers who are projecting that AI capabilities will exceed human capabilities in fields from physics to biology to electrical engineering in the very near future, and that has economic and technological implications," Sullivan told reporters, "but it also has fairly profound national security implications as well. So from our perspective, we have a national security responsibility to do two things, first, to preserve, protect and extend American AI leadership, particularly vis a vis strategic competitors."

Nvidia warns: New AI chip rules could hurt America's edge in tech

Nvidia criticized the Biden administration's new effort to tighten regulations on global artificial intelligence chip exports, arguing that the move could harm U.S. leadership in the AI sector. "Today, companies, startups and universities around the world are tapping mainstream AI to advance healthcare, agriculture, manufacturing, education and countless other fields, driving economic growth and unlocking the potential of nations. Built on American technology, the adoption of AI around the world fuels growth and opportunity for industries at home and abroad. That global progress is now in jeopardy. The Biden Administration now seeks to restrict access to mainstream computing applications with its unprecedented and misguided "AI Diffusion" rule, which threatens to derail innovation and economic growth worldwide," said Nvidia Vice President of Government Affairs Ned Finkle. The U.S. Commerce Department's plan aims to control AI chip flows to prevent malicious actors, particularly regarding concerns that AI technology could enhance China's military capabilities. Finkle indicated that the regulations would impose bureaucratic control over how U.S. semiconductors, computers, systems, and software are designed and marketed globally, ultimately jeopardizing America's status as a leader in AI. Nvidia emphasized that the new rule would unlikely improve national security and instead regulate technology that is already widely available in consumer products, such as gaming hardware. "Rather than mitigate any threat, the new Biden rules would only weaken America's global competitiveness, undermining the innovation that has kept the U.S. ahead," Finkle asserted. Jensen Huang's vision for Nvidia brings confidence to investors Nvidia highlighted that American dominance in computing and software has been vital for national strength and influence. Historically, the federal government has refrained from dictating terms for the design, marketing, and sale of mainstream technology -- a key component of innovation and economic growth. The company noted that the first Trump administration established a foundation for U.S. strength in AI, enabling American industries to compete on merit without compromising national security. The widespread adoption of mainstream AI has driven growth across multiple sectors, including healthcare and manufacturing, while bolstering U.S. interests globally. The anticipated "AI Diffusion" rule, characterized by Nvidia as unprecedented and misguided, is said to threaten these advancements. The regulation, described as a 200+ page document drafted without proper legislative review, is seen as an attempt to impose excessive control over the design and marketing of key technologies. Furthermore, Nvidia criticized the rule's alleged disguise as an "anti-China" measure, arguing it would not enhance U.S. security and would regulate technologies already prevalent in the market. The proposed changes could weaken the competitive edge that the U.S. has developed through innovation and technology sharing. "Although the rule is not enforceable for 120 days, it is already undercutting U.S. interests. As the First Trump Administration demonstrated, America wins through innovation, competition and by sharing our technologies with the world -- not by retreating behind a wall of government overreach. We look forward to a return to policies that strengthen American leadership, bolster our economy and preserve our competitive edge in AI and beyond," Finkle added.

Biden administration unveils new rules for AI chip, model exports

The Biden administration announced Monday new restrictions on the export of the most advanced artificial intelligence chips and proprietary parameters used to govern the interactions of users with AI systems. The rule, which will undergo a 120-day period for public comments, comes in response to what administration officials described as a need to protect national security while also clarifying the rules under which companies in trusted partner countries could access the emerging technology in order to promote innovation. "Over the coming years, AI will become really ubiquitous in every business application in every industry around the world, with enormous potential for enhanced productivity and societal, healthcare and economic benefits," Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters. "That being said, as AI becomes more powerful, the risks to our national security become even more intense." A senior administration official said the new rule will not include any restrictions on chip sales to Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, United Kingdom or the United States. Countries that are under U.S. arms embargoes are already subject to export restrictions on advanced AI chips, but a senior administration official said they will now be under restrictions for the transfer of the most powerful closed weight AI models. The weights in an AI model determine how it processes the inputs from a user and determines what to provide the user as a response, according to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. In a closed weight system, those parameters are secret, unlike with an open weight system in which users could see the settings the model is using to make its decisions. The majority of countries -- those not included in the close partner or arms embargo lists -- will not face licensing requirements for obtaining the equivalent of 1,700 of the most advanced AI chips currently available, nor for any less advanced chips. Companies in the United States and allied countries will not face restrictions in using the most powerful closed weight AI systems, provided they are stored under adequate security, a senior administration official said. "I think the key point I would underscore is that we identified really some of the closest security allies of the United States that have effectively implemented and have a well-documented record of upholding a robust AI technology protection regime, and generally have technology ecosystems that promote the use of AI and other advanced technologies consistent with our national security and foreign policy interests," a senior administration official said.

Nvidia celebrates Trump, slams Biden for putting AI in jeopardy

In response to new export restrictions placed on AI GPUs, Nvidia posted a scathing blog criticizing the outgoing Biden-Harris administration. The administration's Interim Final Rule on Artificial Intelligence Diffusion largely targets China with restrictions on AI GPUs, according to Newsweek. Nvidia disagrees. "While cloaked in the guise of an 'anti-China' measure, these rules would do nothing to enhance U.S. security. The new rules would control technology worldwide, including technology that is already widely available in mainstream gaming PCs and consumer hardware. Rather than mitigate any threat, the new Biden rules would only weaken America's global competitiveness, undermining the innovation that has kept the U.S. ahead," wrote Nvidia's vice president of government of affairs Ned Finkle. Recommended Videos Nvidia's comment on hardware that is available in mainstream gaming PCs is interesting. Nvidia makes some of the best graphics cards you can buy, but the new restrictions are largely focused on AI. In particular, large-scale AI chip orders. According to the rule, restrictions kick in on chip orders with "collective computation power up to roughly 1,700 advanced GPUs," noting that the "overwhelming majority" of orders are under that mark and, therefore, not subject to restrictions. Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming ReSpec Subscribe Check your inbox! Privacy Policy Focus Taiwan reports that 18 of the U.S.' key allies aren't subject to any restrictions, either. These "tier-one" countries include Taiwan, Germany, Canada, Japan, Norway, and the United Kingdom, among others. "Tier-three" countries see the heaviest restrictions, including countries like China, North Korea, Iran, and Russia. As an interim rule, the restrictions aren't enforceable for 120 days, and they won't fully go into effect for a year. Nvidia says that it looks "forward to a return to policies that strengthen American leadership" with the upcoming Trump administration. "As the first Trump Administration demonstrated, America wins through innovation, competition, and by sharing our technologies with the world -- not by retreating behind a wall of government overreach," the blog post reads. In addition to AI chip restrictions, the new rule also places restrictions on closed-weight models. These are AI models that have some proprietary weights and include models like GPT-4 that's behind the wildly popular ChatGPT. The Biden administration says that the new rules won't place any restrictions on open-weight models. With mere days left in the Biden-Harris administration and a generous 120-day window for public comment on the new rules, it's hard to imagine that these AI restrictions will remain in place. Nvidia certainly doesn't want them to, saying that "global progress is now in jeopardy" while praising the first Trump administration for laying "the foundation for America's current strength and success in AI."

Biden to further limit AI chip exports in final push

U.S. President Joe Biden's administration plans one additional round of restrictions on the export of artificial intelligence chips from the likes of Nvidia just days before leaving office, a final push in his effort to keep advanced technologies out of the hands of China and Russia. The U.S. wants to curb the sale of AI chips used in data centers on both a country and company basis, with the goal of concentrating AI development in friendly nations and getting businesses around the world to align with American standards, according to people familiar with the matter. The result would be an expansion of semiconductor caps to most of the world -- an attempt to control the spread of AI technology at a time of soaring demand. The regulations, which could be issued as soon as Friday, would create three tiers of chip trade restrictions, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private.

Nvidia says US wants to control global access to AI chips

'New rule threatens to squander America's hard-won technological advantage' says GPU supremo Nvidia has hit back at the outgoing Biden administration's AI chip tech export restrictions designed to tighten America's stranglehold on supply chains and maintain market dominance. The White House today unveiled what it calls the Final Rule on Artificial Intelligence Diffusion from the Biden-Harris government, placing limits on the number of AI-focused chips that can be exported to most countries, but allowing exemptions for key allies and partners. it is essential that ... the world's AI runs on American rails... The intent is to work with AI companies and foreign governments to initiate critical security and trust standards as they build out their AI infrastructure, but the regulation also makes it clear that the focus of this policy is "to enhance US national security and economic strength," and "it is essential that ... the world's AI runs on American rails." Measures are intended to restrict the transfer to non-trusted countries of the weights for advanced "closed-weight" AI models, and set out security standards to protect the weights of such models. However GPU supremo Nvidia claims the proposed rules are so harmful that it has published a document strongly criticizing the decision. "In its last days in office, the Biden administration seeks to undermine America's leadership with a 200+ page regulatory morass, drafted in secret and without proper legislative review," said VP of government affairs Ned Finkle. "This sweeping overreach would impose bureaucratic control over how America's leading semiconductors, computers, systems and even software are designed and marketed globally. And by attempting to rig market outcomes and stifle competition - the lifeblood of innovation - the Biden administration's new rule threatens to squander America's hard-won technological advantage," the company claims. Nvidia shares were down by 4 percent in response to the news, according to MarketWatch, which published an alarming claim that 80 percent of the market for GPUs may evaporate if the policy is enacted. The rules, which The Register understands are set to take effect 120 days from publication, establish caps on the volume of AI silicon that can be sold to most countries, a clear attempt to curb the amount of processing power that other nations can bring to bear on AI development. According to CNBC, a select group of trusted countries, including Japan, UK, South Korea, and the Netherlands, will effectively be exempt from the rules. A larger group of other nations, including Singapore, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, will face caps, while Uncle Sam's favorite bad guys such as Russia, China, and Iran are to be banned from getting their hands on the technology at all - if such bans ever work in practice. "This policy will help build a trusted technology ecosystem around the world and allow us to protect against the national security risks associated with AI, while ensuring controls do not stifle innovation or US technological leadership," said US Secretary of Commerce, Gian Raimondo. "Managing these very real national security risks requires taking into account the evolution of AI technology, the capabilities of our adversaries, and the desire of our allies to share in the benefits of this technology. We've done that with this rule, and it will help safeguard the most advanced AI technology and help ensure it stays out of the hands of our foreign adversaries, while we continue to broadly share the benefits with partner countries." Reports also indicate that hyperscale operators such as Microsoft and Amazon will be required to seek global authorization to build datacenters hosting GPUs outside of the US. They will need to abide by certain conditions and restrictions such as security requirements. Finkle at Nvidia thundered: "While cloaked in the guise of an 'anti-China' measure, these rules would do nothing to enhance US security." He claimed the new rules would control technology worldwide, including much that is already widely available in mainstream gaming PCs and consumer hardware. "Rather than mitigate any threat, the new Biden rules would only weaken America's global competitiveness, undermining the innovation that has kept the US ahead," Nvidia claims. ®

Nvidia blasts Biden admin over 'misguided' AI chip restrictions,...

Nvidia blasted the Biden administration for implementing "misguided" rules limiting shipments of AI computer chips - and praised incoming President-elect Donald Trump - in a rare public broadside on Monday. The chip giant -- which has ridden the AI wave to become the most valuable company in the world -- took issue with last-minute rules unveiled Monday that cap the number of advanced chips most nations can buy from US firms. The new policy would also tighten requirements on exporting AI-related data for companies that create closed-source models, such as Google and OpenAI. "In its last days in office, the Biden Administration seeks to undermine America's leadership with a 200+ page regulatory morass, drafted in secret and without proper legislative review," Ned Finkle, Nvidia's vice president of external affairs, said. "This sweeping overreach would impose bureaucratic control over how America's leading semiconductors, computers, systems and even software are designed and marketed globally," Finkle added. Nvidia shares plunged more than 3% after the Biden administration's announcement. The company is the biggest supplier of the advanced graphics processing units, or GPUs, that power the data centers tied to AI models. Finkle said Trump "laid the foundation for America's current strength and success in AI" during his first term in office and that the Biden administration's rules could erode that advantage. "As the First Trump Administration demonstrated, America wins through innovation, competition and by sharing our technologies with the world -- not by retreating behind a wall of government overreach," Finkle said. "We look forward to a return to policies that strengthen American leadership, bolster our economy and preserve our competitive edge in AI and beyond." Representatives for Trump's transition team did not immediately return requests for comment. The rules are scheduled to take effect after a 120-day comment period. That means the Trump administration should have broad leeway over how the measures are implemented and whether any changes are necessary. Officials said the rules are necessary to protect US national security and prevent adversaries like China and North Korea from gaining access to advanced technology. But critics, including Nvidia, say they are too restrictive and could hurt innovation. Foreign adversaries like China, Russia, North Korea and Iran already faced export bans on advanced AI chips. Under the new rule, more than 120 nations - including Israel, Switzerland and Mexico - could also face new limits on chip access. A group of 18 close US allies, including the UK, Australia, Canada and Taiwan, won't face any new restrictions, according to the White House. Additionally, relatively small orders of 1,700 or less advanced chips - described as the "overwhelming majority" of orders - won't require a license or count toward national chip counts. Companies that offer cloud computing services internationally, such as Microsoft, Amazon and Google, can apply for exemptions provided they meet certain security requirements. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, who has led the administration's effort to enforce export controls, argued that the restrictions would maintain US leadership in artificial intelligence while still protecting national security. "As AI becomes more powerful, the risks to our national security become even more intense," Raimondo said during a call with reporters. Nvidia is the latest of several US-based tech firms that have sought closer ties with Trump since his election win. Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon's Jeff Bezos have each met with Trump in recent weeks, while X owner Elon Musk is a key adviser to the president-elect. Trump has vowed to support US tech innovation and appointed former PayPal executive David Sacks to serve as "White House AI and crypto czar," a newly created position.

Ensuring U.S. security in the age of Artificial Intelligence

The Biden administration is proposing a new framework for the exporting of the advanced computer chips used to develop artificial intelligence, an attempt to balance national security concerns about the technology with the economic interests of producers and other countries. But the framework proposed Monday also raised concerns of chip industry executives who say the rules would limit access to existing chips used for video games and restrict in 120 countries the chips used for data centers and AI products. Mexico, Portugal, Israel and Switzerland are among the nations that could have limited access. We'll speak with Balaji Padmanabhan, Director of the Robert H. Smith School of Business Center for Artificial Intelligence in Business at the University of Maryland.

US allegedly weighing Global limits on AI exports

China faces outright ban while others vie for Uncle Sam's favor The Biden administration is reportedly weighing new limits in the ongoing US-China trade war, which would ban high-end AI accelerators to adversary nations and impose restrictions on AI models for others. Citing anonymous sources, Bloomberg reports the new rules, which could come as early as Friday -- 10 days before president-elect Donald Trump returns to the white house -- would categorize nations into three progressively more restrictive tiers. Unsurprisingly, the last and most restrictive of these tiers is aimed at China, Russia, and other nations subject to US export embargoes, and is said to seek an outright ban on exports of AI hardware. By comparison, the first and least restrictive of these tiers would be allowed unfettered import of American designed AI chips by companies located in the US and 18 other close allies, including Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea, and Taiwan, according to the report. The second tier, meanwhile, would establish import limits on the volume of compute power the rest of the world is able to maintain, effectively establishing the US as the global gatekeeper for AI development. These limits include caps on computing power available to any one nation reportedly equivalent to 50,000 GPUs over a two year period between 2025 and 2027. However, the severity of these limits on "tier-2" nations depends on whether or not governments are willing to abide by US trade policy. Tier-2 nations that agree to Uncle Sam's national security and human rights policies would be granted higher import caps. Along with compute caps on tier-2 nations, the rules may also include limits on the export of closed AI model weights. Model weights represent the numerical values that dictate how modern AI models function. Under the proposed rules, the Commerce Department aims to prevent companies from hosting closed model weights in tier-3 countries like China and Russia. Such a move would prevent major closed-source models from being served from these nations. Open models, like Meta's Llama 3.1 405B, would not be subject to these rules, nor would any closed model deemed less sophisticated than an existing open model. Along with controlling who can acquire the arms of the AI revolution, the rules would also establish limits on where nations can deploy their allocation. Under the rules, American companies would be required to keep at least half of their total computing power within US borders. Similarly, while tier-1 nations would be free to deploy as many GPUs and accelerators as they like within their own borders, they would need permission from the US to deploy them elsewhere with no more than 25 percent being deployed outside tier 1 nations and a 7 percent cap on deployments on any one tier 2 nation. The reported trade rules reflect an increasingly hawkish stance by the US to derail Chinese AI and semiconductor developments. Over the past few years, the US has enacted ever stricter performance caps on AI accelerators and restricted access to critical components and semiconductor manufacturing equipment and facilities. Most recently, the administration moved to curb sales of high-bandwidth memory, a key component in high-end AI accelerators, to China. Whether or not the Biden administration's latest salvo of the trade war will move forward with the alleged plans remains to be seen. It's also unclear whether they would persist under a second Trump administration. In any case, major AI equipment suppliers, like Nvidia, aren't thrilled with the move. "Every datacenter is being accelerated, and every business and application is incorporating mainstream AI. The worldwide interest in accelerated computing for everyday applications is a tremendous opportunity for the US to cultivate, promoting the economy and adding U.S. jobs," the chip maker said in a statement provided to El Reg. "A last-minute rule restricting exports to most of the world would be a major shift in policy that would not reduce the risk of misuse but would threaten economic growth and U.S. leadership." Nvidia, by far the largest supplier of GPUs used in large-scale AI systems, is no stranger to export controls. Over the past few years, the chip designer has developed several China-specific SKUs to keep its products in compliance with US law. At the same time, the company has sought to expand its influence to new regions, peddling the importance of sovereign AI. The latest export controls, if implemented, could effectively hinder not only Nvidia's ability to do business in these emerging markets, but rivals Intel, AMD, Cerebras, among others. ®

AI Chip Export Restrictions: Biden Administration Targets Global Tech Security

Export restrictions of AI Chipset by Biden's Administration Former US president, Joe Biden has announced strict rules to limit the export of AI chips. The goal of this restriction is to prevent countries like China and Russia from misusing the power of AI technology. This is part of an ongoing effort by the US government to protect its technology from being used in harmful ways by other countries. Moreover, this decision will focus on AI development in US allies and encourages global companies to follow American Standards. The key allies will have almost unlimited access to American Chips, while the countries considered adversaries will have very limited or no access to the chipsets. This new administration planning will be affecting companies like Nvidia and AMD. Nvidia already faces limitations in selling AI chips to China and Russia, but these markets account for a very small portion of its revenue. The US has already placed limitations over the restriction on AI chipset sales to more than 40 countries fearing misuse. Also, some officials want more strict limitations and controls to stop the misuse of AI in the Middle East. Nvidia is, however, worried that this imposition might harm its global competitiveness and slow down the U.S. economy in the long run. After the Biden government's announcement, Nvidia's stock dropped by 1% in after-hours trading. Similarly the AMD also saw a small decline on Wednesday following a drop of 4% earlier in the day and then it was trading slightly down on Thursday pre-market trading which is near a 52-week low. At the CES 2025 tech event, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang showcased new AI devices, personal AI computers powered by their latest Blackwell chip. However, even after the innovation, Nvidia's stock fell by more than 6% due to the recent export restrictions and global competition in AI will affect the company.

Joe Biden imposes export controls on chips used for AI to limit China

Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington and Michael Acton in San Francisco The US is imposing expansive export controls on chips used for artificial intelligence in an effort to make it harder for China and other adversaries to get access to advanced technology with military applications. The Biden administration on Monday unveiled a new export control regime that gives 20 close allies and partners uninhibited access to AI-related chips while placing licensing requirements on most other countries. The move faced immediate pushback from the US semiconductor industry. The policy aims to make it harder for China to use other countries to circumvent existing US restrictions and get technology that can be used for everything from nuclear weapons modelling to hypersonic missiles. "The rule both provides greater clarity to our international partners and to industry and counters the serious circumvention and related national security risks posed by countries of concern and malicious actors who may seek to use the advanced American technologies against us," said US national security adviser Jake Sullivan. The regime creates a three-tier licensing system for chips used to power data centres that process AI computations. The top tier, which includes G7 members in addition to countries such as Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Taiwan, the Netherlands and Ireland, will face no restrictions. The third tier includes nations such as China, Iran, Russia and North Korea to which US groups can, in effect, not export. The middle tier of more than 100 countries will face caps and licences for export volumes over those limits. Commerce secretary Gina Raimondo said the policy ensured the new controls "do not stifle innovation or US technological leadership". But it has provoked a furious backlash from the US semiconductor industry. The Semiconductor Industry Association and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation issued forceful statements last week saying the policy would only give foreign competitors an advantage over US companies. Industry sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity slammed the move, calling it an unprecedented step that showed Washington was trying to micromanage the global chip supply chain to the detriment of its allies and its own companies such as Nvidia, AMD, Dell and Supermicro. "While cloaked in the guise of an 'anti-China' measure, these rules would do nothing to enhance US security. The new rules would control technology worldwide, including technology that is already widely available in mainstream gaming PCs and consumer hardware," Nvidia said in a blog post. "The new Biden rules would only weaken America's global competitiveness, undermining the innovation that has kept the US ahead." But Jimmy Goodrich, a senior adviser to the Rand Corporation, said the rules were an "important framework" that enhanced national security and did not give Chinese AI companies a competitive advantage over US groups. "Unchecked offshoring of massive AI data centres to countries with questionable ties to foreign adversaries presents clear national and economic security risks," said Goodrich. "The framework still allows for millions of chips to continue flowing around the world, and concerns about Chinese competition in AI chips are presently overhyped." The industry sources questioned whether the US would be equipped to monitor such an extensive company-specific regime and expressed hope that the Trump administration would roll back the controls. One US official declined to comment on what the Trump administration might do but stressed that "time is really of the essence". "We're in a critical window right now, particularly vis-à-vis China. If you think about where our models are today relative to People's Republic of China models, the estimates range from being six to 18 months ahead right now, and so every minute counts," said the official. One person familiar with the new regime said it was "nothing if not America First", in a reference to the mantra frequently used by Donald Trump. "The question is whether the new administration can stick to that, or falls victim to a policy of Petro-autocracies First". Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican and incoming chair of the Senate commerce committee, last week said the rules would "crush American semiconductor leadership". He said he was prepared to trigger the Congressional Review Act, which can be used to overturn federal agency actions. Cruz said they had been "drafted in secrecy without input from Congress or American companies". But Raimondo said the administration had "taken pains and consulted with industry and civil society and experts on Capitol Hill".

Biden to Further Limit Nvidia, AMD AI Chip Exports in Final Push

President Joe Biden's administration plans one additional round of restrictions on the export of artificial intelligence chips from the likes of Nvidia Corp. just days before leaving office, a final push in his effort to keep advanced technologies out of the hands of China and Russia. The US wants to curb the sale of AI chips used in data centers on both a country and company basis, with the goal of concentrating AI development in friendly nations and getting businesses around the world to align with American standards, according to people familiar with the matter.

Can US Export Restrictions Lead to the End of the AI Boom? | Investing.com UK

Having set the precedent by introducing export controls on AI chips in October 2022, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) significantly expanded the policy on Monday. The Biden administration's "Interim Final Rule on Artificial Intelligence Diffusion" will now apply globally to 120 countries. This Interim Final Rule (IFR) is a part of the broader "Export Control Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion" framework. Primarily, this regulatory action by the outgoing Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has the same function as the previous two export controls - to deny China's global access to advanced semiconductor technology used in AI chip development and manufacturing. "As AI becomes more powerful, the risks to our national security become even more intense," Gina Raimondo to reporters The number of nations that would be exempt from new AI restrictions is slightly higher than the Fourteen Eyes surveillance alliance, at 18. This includes the UK, Taiwan, Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Finland, South Korea, Sweden and the Netherlands. Interestingly, NATO members such as Czechia, Hungary, Croatia, and the Baltic republics are not on the exclusion list, which makes this one of the world's most exclusive initiatives. The new regulation will have a 120-day comment period, so the Trump admin may tweak the restriction rules after his inauguration on January 20th. However, the stance against China comes from a bipartisan consensus, so that is unlikely. The question is, will this dampen the global supply of AI chips to the point of neutralizing the rally of AI stocks? According to the White House's fact sheet released on Monday, bulk AI chip orders with a cumulative compute power equivalent to up to 1,700 high-end GPUs will not be affected. For comparison, hyperscaler Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) announced in January 2024 that the company will acquire compute power equivalent to 600,000 H100 GPUs from Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA). For such enterprises, the Biden admin introduced Universal Verified End User (UVEU) status, enabling them to acquire up to 7% of their global AI compute capacity, which is "likely amounting to hundreds of thousands of chips." Moreover, entities within the nations above can opt for National Verified End User (NVEU) status, granting up to 320,000 GPUs worth of compute power over the next two years. Those entities outside the VEU framework could buy up to 50,000 GPUs worth of compute power. This 50k cap could be doubled if there is a direct government-to-government agreement, giving the USG enforcement flexibility. The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), representing 99% of the US chip sector, expressed concern that such a wide-sweeping rule is pushed "days before a presidential transition and without any meaningful input from industry." SIA further warns that it "risks causing unintended and lasting damage to America's economy and global competitiveness". The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), representing Big Tech companies such as Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Meta, and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), issued similar concerns. According to ITI, competitors would gain an advantage by placing arbitrary constraints on the US semiconductor sector. In his blog post, Ken Glueck, executive vice president at Oracle (NYSE:ORCL), noted that the new framework "will go down as one of the most destructive ever to hit the U.S. technology industry." As reported by AP, some insiders suggested that these restrictions would even affect existing GPUs used in video gaming, in addition to curtailing the ability of US companies to expand data centers outside the listed 18 nations. Charlie Dai, VP and principal analyst at Forrester, foresees that the new framework will have unintended consequences: "It not only restricts China's access to advanced technologies, pushing US firms to innovate and develop alternatives; it also limits US companies' global market share and encourages China to accelerate its own technological advancements, altering the global tech landscape and intensifying the US-China tech competition," In short, the entire tech industry seems to be against the new mandate proposal. Given the reliance on cloud computing, which relies on GPUs and AI chips, companies worldwide are likely to face disruptions. New compliance expenditures are also expected to have a consolidation effect, as companies with deeper pockets carry extra burden. At the same time, the USG could ostracize restricted nations while China accelerates its domestic AI chip development with open-source RISC-V architecture under the 14th Five-Year Plan. Although it remains the case that Nvidia's biggest customers are hyperscalers Microsoft, Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), and Amazon, all of which have a large chip-buying capacity under the new IFR, their expansion plans are now in jeopardy. Being headquartered in the US, Microsoft's Azure or Amazon's AWS rollout outside the US is curtailed to half of its AI compute capacity. In non-trusted countries, this cap is only 7%, while the listed trusted nations get to have 25% of their compute power. Therefore, a push in this direction bodes ill for Nvidia as it will likely disrupt global supply chains and existing AI infrastructure rollout plans. In a blog post, Nvidia's representative Ned Finkle unequivocally called the new rule "unprecedented and misguided", as it aims to "to rig market outcomes and stifle competition". Given this uniform backlash across the industry, it may be the case that the incoming Trump admin will cut some of the "200+ page regulatory morass". After all, during the presidential campaign, Trump openly courted Silicon Valley heavyweights. In turn, they signaled their support. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of META, is the most prominent reversal example, as he announced the rolling back of DEI initiatives, canceling "fact-checkers," and even removing tampons from men's bathrooms. However, it remains to be seen whether the national security faction will gain more ground over the technocratic faction. One should also remember that the technocratic faction within the WEF places great importance on the global rollout of AI. ***

White House slaps new curbs on exports of Nvidia AI chips

Companies will have a 120-day comment period-which is exceptionally long-to give the Trump administration time to get settled in and make changes to the rule after consulting with industry and other countries, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters ahead of the release.White House unveiled sweeping new restrictions on the sale of advanced AI chips by Nvidia Corp and its peers, leaving the Trump administration to decide how and whether to implement curbs that have encountered fierce industry opposition. The rules, which are set to take effect in one year, establish caps on the amount of computing power that can be sold to most countries. Businesses in those places can bypass national limits by agreeing to a set of security and human rights standards, officials said Sunday. Companies will have a 120-day comment period-which is exceptionally long-to give the Trump administration time to get settled in and make changes to the rule after consulting with industry and other countries, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters ahead of the release. Raimondo stressed that the Biden administration sought to strike a balance between protecting national security and allowing trade in chips to continue. Supply chain activities and gaming chips are excluded from the new curbs, she added. And Washington will waive licensing for the sale of chips with low collective computing power, such as to universities and research institutes. "This is very hard, and no rule is perfect," she said. "Managing the national security risks requires delicate tradeoffs that take all of this into account." China's growing technological prowess has spurred concern in the US. The move to curb the sale of AI chips used in data centers on both a country and company basis has the goal of concentrating artificial intelligence development in friendly nations and getting businesses around the world to align with American standards, Bloomberg News previously reported. The Biden team discussed the measures with its successors, and one US official said export controls have largely been a bipartisan national security priority. Similar to the rules for importing countries, companies in the US and nearly 20 allied countries can agree to US government standards and win permission to ship to the restricted nations. To get that nod, they'll have to keep most of their computing power in friendly territories. The approval would not extend to data centres in China, Russia, Macau and some 20 other locations for which the US has an arms embargo. The US has effectively banned AI chip shipments to those places. Shares of Nvidia fell 2.8% in premarket trading in New York Monday. Shares of peers Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Intel Corp declined 1.5% and 1.4%, respectively. The goal of the measures, which companies like Nvidia and Oracle Corp have warned could be catastrophic for the US tech industry, is to ensure that the global development of AI aligns with American standards and relies on US-not Chinese-technology.

White House Announces New Rules for Export of AI Technology | PYMNTS.com

The President Joe Biden administration announced a new rule that aims to make it easier to sell artificial intelligence systems and computing power to U.S. allies, while also keeping the technology out of the hands of countries of concern. The Interim Final Rule on Artificial Intelligence Diffusion builds on previous regulations like the chip controls announced in October 2022 and October 2023, the White House said in a Monday (Jan. 13) press release. "To enhance U.S. national security and economic strength, it is essential that we do not offshore this critical technology and that the world's AI runs on American rails," the release said. "It is important to work with AI companies and foreign governments to put in place critical security and trust standards as they build out their AI ecosystems." To facilitate the responsible diffusion of AI, the rule places no restrictions on chip sales to 18 U.S. allies and partners and streamlines the processing of low-risk shipments of the technology, according to the release. The rule also creates two kinds of status -- Universal Verified End User (UVEU) and National Verified End User -- that help responsible and trusted entities benefit from U.S. technology, the release said. It also allows the purchase of large amounts of computational power by non-VEU entities located outside of key allies and enables governments to double their chip caps by signing government-to-government arrangements that align their AI-related values with those of the U.S., per the release. To constrain the access to technology of countries of concern, the rule has provisions that ensure they can access advanced semiconductors for general-purpose applications but not for training advanced AI systems, restrict the transfer of model weights and set security standards to protect the weights of advanced closed-weight AI models, according to the release. Biden issued the first National Security Memorandum on AI in October, directing federal agencies to protect the country's AI advances as strategic assets while fostering their safe development for national security. The White House directive outlined three core objectives: maintaining U.S. leadership in safe AI development; harnessing AI for national security while protecting democratic values; and building international consensus on AI governance.

Nvidia blasts Biden's new AI restrictions as 'misguided' - GPU giant praises Trump's hands-off approach to tech industry

In its final days, the Biden administration announced last-minute adjustments to its chip export controls, and Nvidia apparently isn't a fan. The new restrictions, announced today, are substantial considering that Biden will only be president for one more week. Officially called the Interim Final Rule on Artificial Intelligence Diffusion ("diffusion" as in the spread of the emerging technology), the last-minute regulations add new restrictions that corporations and countries must follow. Nvidia penned a blog firing back at the new restrictions, saying, "the Biden Administration seeks to undermine America's leadership with a 200+ page regulatory morass, drafted in secret and without proper legislative review." "To enhance U.S. national security and economic strength, it is essential that we do not offshore this critical technology and that the world's AI runs on American rails," the White House said in a statement. "It is important to work with AI companies and foreign governments to put in place critical security and trust standards as they build out their AI ecosystems." Nvidia has fired back at the US government in a statement of its own, claiming that "global progress is now in jeopardy." "In its last days in office, the Biden Administration seeks to undermine America's leadership with a 200+ page regulatory morass, drafted in secret and without proper legislative review," the company's press release reads. "[B]y attempting to rig market outcomes and stifle competition -- the lifeblood of innovation -- the Biden Administration's new rule threatens to squander America's hard-won technological advantage." One of the primary features of the new export rules is that it's no longer a blacklist, but rather a whitelist that applies to every country on the planet. There are no restrictions for "18 key allies and partners," but those are the only exceptions. Companies are also impacted by the new regulations, which establish three classes that firms fall under: Universal Verified End Users (EVEUs), National Verified End Users (NVEUs), and non-VEUs. EVEUs are companies that meet the US's security requirements and are located in countries closely aligned with America, while NVEUs meet the same security standards but can't be in countries of concern. These companies, depending on what country they're in, are subject to limits on how many "advanced GPUs" they can buy. NVEUs can buy up computational power equivalent to no more than 320,000 "advanced GPUs" within two years. Non-VEU companies have to settle for just 50,000 per country, a cap that the administration says exists so that US tech is available to foreign governments, the healthcare business, and local commerce. The caps don't apply to chip orders that do not exceed the computational power of 1,700 advanced GPUs, which the government claims represent the vast majority of shipments and is actually an improvement over prior regulations. UVEUs don't have to deal with these kinds of limits, but the Biden administration says they can "place up to 7% of their global AI computational capacity in countries around the world." That also means that 93% of a company's total data center throughput must be in the US or its best friends. Nvidia apparently dislikes the new regulations in their entirety so much that it didn't even bother pointing out anything particularly specific regarding either company designations or the chip caps. The GPU giant did, however, have much to say about how much better the first Trump administration handled the regulation of the tech industry from 2017 to 2021, arguing that President Trump "laid the foundation for America's current strength and success in AI." That Nvidia is so warm to Trump isn't very surprising. Not only has the tech industry as a whole moved to establish close ties with the incoming administration, but Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang himself has said in a Bloomberg interview that he would like to meet with Trump and help him succeed in his second term. "As the First Trump Administration demonstrated, America wins through innovation, competition and by sharing our technologies with the world -- not by retreating behind a wall of government overreach," Nvidia said at the end of its press release. "We look forward to a return to policies that strengthen American leadership, bolster our economy and preserve our competitive edge in AI and beyond." That last line makes it pretty clear that Nvidia is eager for Trump to get back into the White House, and as President, there's probably something the two-termer can do to reverse the AI diffusion restrictions. However, in his first run as President Trump, he had done his fair share of clamping down on exports, particularly regarding China. At first, the Biden administration was just picking up where Trump left off, as Biden reconfirmed one of Trump's executive orders on Chinese sanctions just five months after his inauguration. At the very least, Nvidia and other critics of the new AI regulations, such as Oracle, are hopeful that the second Trump administration will change direction when it comes to export controls. While Trump hasn't said very much about export controls, he has said he wants to bring back big tariffs and implement a particularly large 60% tax on Chinese imports. It's hard to imagine the Republican President lifting sanctions on China given his attitude, but changing the rules around EVEUs and NVEUs seems plausible.

NVIDIA Statement on the Biden Administration's Misguided 'AI Diffusion' Rule

For decades, leadership in computing and software ecosystems has been a cornerstone of American strength and influence worldwide. The federal government has wisely refrained from dictating the design, marketing and sale of mainstream computers and software -- key drivers of innovation and economic growth. The first Trump Administration laid the foundation for America's current strength and success in AI, fostering an environment where U.S. industry could compete and win on merit without compromising national security. As a result, mainstream AI has become an integral part of every new application, driving economic growth, promoting U.S. interests and ensuring American leadership in cutting-edge technology. Today, companies, startups and universities around the world are tapping mainstream AI to advance healthcare, agriculture, manufacturing, education and countless other fields, driving economic growth and unlocking the potential of nations. Built on American technology, the adoption of AI around the world fuels growth and opportunity for industries at home and abroad. That global progress is now in jeopardy. The Biden Administration now seeks to restrict access to mainstream computing applications with its unprecedented and misguided "AI Diffusion" rule, which threatens to derail innovation and economic growth worldwide. In its last days in office, the Biden Administration seeks to undermine America's leadership with a 200+ page regulatory morass, drafted in secret and without proper legislative review. This sweeping overreach would impose bureaucratic control over how America's leading semiconductors, computers, systems and even software are designed and marketed globally. And by attempting to rig market outcomes and stifle competition -- the lifeblood of innovation -- the Biden Administration's new rule threatens to squander America's hard-won technological advantage. While cloaked in the guise of an "anti-China" measure, these rules would do nothing to enhance U.S. security. The new rules would control technology worldwide, including technology that is already widely available in mainstream gaming PCs and consumer hardware. Rather than mitigate any threat, the new Biden rules would only weaken America's global competitiveness, undermining the innovation that has kept the U.S. ahead. Although the rule is not enforceable for 120 days, it is already undercutting U.S. interests. As the First Trump Administration demonstrated, America wins through innovation, competition and by sharing our technologies with the world -- not by retreating behind a wall of government overreach. We look forward to a return to policies that strengthen American leadership, bolster our economy and preserve our competitive edge in AI and beyond.

As NVDA stock drops on Biden's proposed AI rules, Nvidia flatters Trump in statement blasting 'government overreach'

With only a week left in office, the Biden administration is still firing off proposed rules, including new restrictions on exports of advanced AI computer chips that could help keep the U.S. ahead of rival nations -- China, specifically. But big industry players don't appear happy about it. And, in response, they are laying on the flattery for the incoming administration. A fact sheet released Monday by the White House reads that "to strengthen U.S. security and economic strength, the Biden-Harris Administration today is releasing an Interim Final Rule on Artificial Intelligence Diffusion. It streamlines licensing hurdles for both large and small chip orders, bolsters U.S. AI leadership, and provides clarity to allied and partner nations about how they can benefit from AI. It builds on previous chip controls by thwarting smuggling, closing other loopholes, and raising AI security standards." In effect, those rules would put limits on AI chip exports, in an effort to preserve an American advantage in the AI space. Out of all the companies in that space, Nvidia is likely to feel the impact of these proposed rules the most, as it sells roughly nine out of ten AI chips around the world.

Nvidia denounce White House AI controls

The controversy comes at a time when AI technology has become increasingly central to global economic growth and technological advancement. NVIDIA, one of America's leading semiconductor companies, has strongly criticized the Biden Administration's new "AI Diffusion" rule, calling it an unprecedented overreach that threatens global innovation and US technological leadership. In a statement released by Ned Finkle, NVIDIA's Vice President of Government Affairs, the company argues that the 200+ page regulation, which was reportedly drafted without proper legislative review, would impose bureaucratic control over the design and marketing of American semiconductors, computers, systems, and software globally. The new rules aim to restrict access to mainstream computing applications, including technology currently available in gaming PCs and consumer hardware. While presented as an anti-China measure, NVIDIA contends that these restrictions would affect technology deployment worldwide and ultimately weaken America's competitive position in the global market. Finkle drew a contrast with the previous Trump Administration's approach, which he credited for establishing the foundation of America's current AI leadership by allowing US industry to compete freely while maintaining national security. Under those policies, mainstream AI has become integral to applications across healthcare, agriculture, manufacturing, and education sectors. Undermines US interests? Although the rule won't be enforceable for 120 days, NVIDIA claims it is already undermining US interests. The company argues that America's technological advantage is best maintained through innovation and competition, rather than government restrictions on technology sharing. The statement reflects growing tension between the tech industry and the Biden Administration over the regulation of artificial intelligence technologies, particularly regarding international trade and competition with China. The controversy comes at a time when AI technology has become increasingly central to global economic growth and technological advancement, with American companies playing a leading role in its development and deployment.

Biden to Impose More Limits on Nvidia AI Chip Exports, Report Says

The plan would involve new caps on AI chip imports by Gulf states and Southeast Asian countries as well as increased restrictions on imports by Russia and China. In its last days in the White House, the Biden administration reportedly is planning new regulations that could be announced as soon as Friday to further limit the export of artificial intelligence (AI) chips by companies like Nvidia (NVDA). According to Bloomberg, the Biden administration is planning three tiers of chip curbs: at the top level, U.S. allies would retain unlimited access to U.S. chips; at the second, adversaries won't be able to import semiconductors; and at the third, most countries would face restrictions on the total computing power they get. The plan would see the U.S. restricting the sale of AI chips used in data centers on both a country and company basis, Bloomberg said. It would involve new caps on AI chip imports by Gulf states and Southeast Asian countries as well as marking a final push to keep advanced technologies away from China and Russia. The idea would see "friendly nations" have more access to AI chips. Companies in countries that face national limits could get more access "by agreeing to a set of U.S. government security requirements and human rights standards," the report said. Nvidia didn't immediately return an Investopedia request for comment but objected to the proposal in a statement provided to Bloomberg, saying, "A last-minute rule restricting exports to most of the world would be a major shift in policy that would not reduce the risk of misuse but would threaten economic growth and U.S. leadership." Nvidia shares slipped more than 1% after markets closed Wednesday following the report.

NVIDIA Slams Biden's AI Rules, Warns of Stifling US Innovation

NVIDIA has strongly criticised the Biden administration's new "AI Diffusion" rule, set to impose restrictions on global access to AI chips and technology. The company argues that the regulation, expected to take effect in 120 days, threatens to undermine U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence and stifle innovation worldwide. Ned Finkle, vice president of government affairs at NVIDIA, said, "The Biden Administration now seeks to restrict access to mainstream computing applications with its unprecedented and misguided 'AI Diffusion' rule, which threatens to derail innovation and economic growth worldwide". "For decades, leadership in computing and software ecosystems has been a cornerstone of American strength and influence worldwide," he added. He further noted that under the previous Trump Administration, policies had fostered a competitive environment that allowed U.S. industries to lead in AI innovation without compromising national security. The Biden administration has introduced new restrictions on the export of US-developed computer chips used in artificial intelligence (AI) systems to prevent rivals like China from accessing advanced technology. The move comes just a week before President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration. These measures, part of a long-standing effort to curb China's progress in military and industrial leadership, are likely to heighten tensions between Washington and Beijing. The 200-page regulation imposes limits on exporting advanced AI chips and technology to countries like China while introducing a Pentagon initiative to use AI models for cyber defence and a pilot program to bolster energy sector cybersecurity. In a recent appearance on Joe Rogan's podcast, Zuckerberg revealed that the Biden administration had pressured Meta to censor content related to COVID-19 vaccines. "They pushed us super hard to take down things that were honestly true," said Zuckerberg. He claimed that administration officials would "scream" and 'curse" at Meta employees during discussions on content moderation. Last year, a16z venture capitalist Marc Andreessen also expressed serious concerns about the Biden administration's approach to AI regulation. After meetings with government officials in May 2024, Andreessen described the experience as 'absolutely horrifying.' He claimed that officials discouraged investments in AI startups, saying, "They actually said flat out to us, 'Don't do AI startups, like, don't fund AI startups.'"

US' new restrictions on AI chip exports aimed at China, Russia: Explained in 10 points

The Biden administration issued sweeping rules on Monday governing how A.I. chips and models can be shared with foreign countries. New rules aim to keep advanced technology out of China and to ensure that cutting-edge artificial intelligence is developed by the United States and its allies. The restrictions are being announced against a global backdrop of soaring demand for AI chips made by the likes of Nvidia, AMD and Intel. The Biden administration on Monday unveiled new export rules on advanced computing chips used for artificial intelligence, aiming to facilitate sales to allied nations and further curb access to countries like China. The move is seen as an attempt to balance national security concerns about the technology with the economic interests of producers and other countries. The rule regulates the flow of American AI chips and technology needed for the most sophisticated AI applications. The restrictions, which also include rules on weights for closed AI models, build on curbs announced in 2023 on exporting certain AI chips to China, which the United States sees as a strategic competitor in the field of advanced semiconductors. "The US leads the world in AI now -- both AI development and AI chip design -- and it's critical that we keep it that way," Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters. ALSO READ: 'If you pick a fight with Canada...': Jagmeet Singh, Khalistani supporter and ex-Trudeau ally's message for Trump -The rule restricts the export of chips known as graphics processing units (GPUs), specialized processors originally created to accelerate graphics rendering, reports news agency Reuters. -Although known for their role in gaming, the ability of GPUs such as those made by U.S.-based industry leader Nvidia to process different pieces of data simultaneously has made them valuable for training and running AI models. -In a bid to control global access to AI, the US is expanding restrictions on advanced GPUs needed to build the clusters used to train advanced AI models. The cap translates into the equivalent of nearly 50,000 H100 Nvidia GPUs, according to Divyansh Kaushik, an AI expert at Beacon Global Strategies, a Washington-based advisory firm. -"Fifty thousand H100s is an enormous amount of power - enough to fuel cutting-edge research, run entire AI companies or support the most demanding AI applications on the planet," he said. Those could include running a global-scale chatbot service or managing advanced real-time systems like fraud detection or personalized recommendations for massive companies like Amazon or Netflix, Kaushik added. ALSO READ: Donald Trump Inauguration day: From Apple to Amazon, full list of top US companies that have donated for swearing-in ceremony -The fresh curbs, the culmination of years of attempts to block China from gaining ground in its military and industrial leadership efforts, are expected to further inflame tensions between Washington and Beijing ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump next week. They've also triggered intense criticism from US tech giants like Nvidia and Oracle. -The global export framework, announced Monday, creates three tiers of countries for exports of advanced AI chips and technology. There are no new restrictions for partners and allies like Australia, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. -Yes, there are exceptions on licensing. If a buyer orders small quantities of GPUs - the equivalent of up to some 1,700 H100 chips - they will not count toward the caps, and only require government notification, not a license. ALSO READ: Mark Zuckerberg slams Apple over iPhone sales slump, but who's really paying the price? -Eighteen destinations are exempt from country caps on advanced GPUs, according to a senior administration official. Those are Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and Taiwan plus the United States. -Another item being controlled by the U.S. is known as "model weights." AI models are trained to produce meaningful material by being fed large quantities of data. At the same time, algorithms evaluate the outputs to improve the model's performance. -Since October 2022, the administration has announced several rounds of semiconductor export restrictions targeting Beijing. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has made self-sufficiency a major pillar of his economic strategy to make China a tech superpower. (With inputs from agencies)

New US Rule Aims to Block China's Access to AI Chips and Models by Restricting the World

The US government has announced a radical plan to control exports of cutting-edge AI technology to most nations. The Biden administration announced a bold and controversial new export control scheme today, designed to prevent the advanced chips and artificial intelligence models themselves from ending up in the hands of adversaries such as China. The administration's new "AI Diffusion rule" divides the world into nations that are allowed relatively unfettered access to America's most advanced AI silicon and algorithms, and those that will require special licenses to access the technology. The rule, which will be enforced by the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security, also seeks to restrict the movement of the most powerful AI models for the first time. "The US leads the world in AI now, both AI development and AI chip design, and it's critical that we keep it that way," the US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said ahead of today's announcement. The list of trusted nations are the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, France, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden and Taiwan. Companies in other nations not subject to arms controls will be able to obtain up to 1,700 of the latest AI chips without special permission, the rule states. They will be able to apply for a special license to acquire more chips, to build very large scale datacenters using US technology, or to gain access to the most powerful closed model "weights" made by US firms. Companies will be required to have adequate physical and cyber-security to obtain a license. Supply chain activities, including the design, manufacturing, and storage of chips will be exempt from the rule. The rule also will not restrict open source AI models such as Meta's Llama, the administration says. Arms embargoed nations such as China, Iran, and North Korea are already forbidden from obtaining advanced chips. The new rule will for the first time restrict their access to advanced models. "The semiconductors that power [AI] and the model weights are, as we all know, a dual use technology," Raimondo added ahead of the announcement. "They're used in many commercial applications, but also can be used by our adversaries to run nuclear simulations, develop bio weapons and advance their militaries." The rule is sure to stoke controversy, however, because it may throttle international sales of AI at a critical moment for the industry. It comes just a week before Trump's inauguration. The ruling sets a 120 day consultation period, meaning Donald Trump's administration will be expected to listen to input, perhaps modify the rule, and then enforce it. Nvidia, the world's leading manufacturer of AI chips, called the rule "unprecedented and misguided" in a blog post. "While cloaked in the guise of an 'anti-China' measure, these rules would do nothing to enhance US security. Rather than mitigate any threat, the new Biden rules would only weaken America's global competitiveness, undermining the innovation that has kept the US ahead." The US already limits exports of advanced AI chips to China, a key geopolitical rival, but companies there have been able to build cutting algorithms using computer clusters located in other nations. Under the new rule, China will not be able to build so-called frontier AI models in other nations impacted by the rule.

US announces new export rule to curb misuse of AI chips

The plans have drawn criticism from tech giant Nvidia, as well as from the Information Technology Industry Council. The US government today (13 January) announced export control measures in an attempt to prevent chips used to build artificial intelligence (AI) models from ending up in the hands of malicious actors, it claims. The Interim Final Rule on Artificial Intelligence Diffusion will place caps on the number of AI chips which can be exported to most countries. However, it will allow access to US-manufactured AI tech for 18 of the country's key political allies and partners (such as UK, Japan and Ireland) while also maintaining a block on exports to its political adversaries (such as China and North Korea). Meanwhile, certain countries (such as Portugal and Israel) may receive limited access. The rule follows up on previous US regulations aimed at protecting national security, the October 2022 and October 2023 chip controls. Explaining the motivation behind the rule, the White House said in an official statement: "To enhance US national security and economic strength, it is essential that we do not offshore this critical technology and that the world's AI runs on American rails. "It is important to work with AI companies and foreign governments to put in place critical security and trust standards as they build out their AI ecosystems." The White House added that the rule follows "a broad range of relevant engagements" the Biden administration has had over the past ten months with "stakeholders, bipartisan members of Congress, industry representatives, and foreign allies and partners". Six core components of new rule The government explained that six tenets have informed the creation of the new rule. No restrictions will apply to chip sales to 18 allies and partners, and chip orders with collective computation power up to roughly 1,700 advanced GPUs will not require a licence and will not count against national chip caps. Entities which meet high security and trust standards and are headquartered in close allies and partners can obtain Universal Verified End User (UVEU) status. In addition, any entities which meet the same security requirements and are headquartered in any destination that is not a country of concern can apply for National Verified End User status, thus enabling them to purchase computational power equivalent to up to 320,000 advanced GPUs over the next two years. As for non-VEU entities located outside of close allies, they can still purchase large amounts of computational power - up to the equivalent of 50,000 advanced GPUs per country. Lastly, the rule intends to employ government-to-government arrangements in a move to foster an international ecosystem of shared values regarding the development, deployment and use of AI. Any governments which sign these arrangements can double their chip caps - up to 100,000 of today's advanced GPUs. The government said that the rule takes "significant steps against countries of concern, constraining them from accessing advanced AI systems and the computing power used to train them". 'Anti-China' measure One critic of the new rule is tech giant Nvidia. The company claimed that although the first Trump administration "laid the foundation for America's current strength and success in AI", that work is now "in jeopardy". "While cloaked in the guise of an 'anti-China' measure, these rules would do nothing to enhance US security. The new rules would control technology worldwide, including technology that is already widely available in mainstream gaming PCs and consumer hardware." The company further asserted: "Rather than mitigate any threat, the new Biden rules would only weaken America's global competitiveness, undermining the innovation that has kept the US ahead." Another critic of the rule is the tech trade association, the Information Technology Industry Council. In a letter published last week, this group warned the government that the new rule could negatively impact global supply chains as well as businesses across the US. Don't miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic's digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.

Nvidia says latest US restrictions on China AI chips will 'stifle competition'

However China and Nvidia have both critiqued the rules for stifling competition In the final few days of the Biden administration, the President has introduced a set of new regulations aimed at restricting China's access to advanced semiconductors used in AI technology. The 'Export Control Framework for AI Diffusion' divides the world into friend and foe, with allies being provided with unfettered access to AI technology, while US adversaries, namely China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, will face harsh restrictions. The latest regulations, along with the slew of export restrictions levied against China during Biden's four year tenure, are designed to maintain West's dominance in AI development and AI chip design. The AI Diffusion rules would implement new country-specific quotas on GPUs, but provide an option for cloud computing providers to apply for approval to build data centers outside of these limits, allowing giants such as Microsoft, Google, and Amazon to continue with existing and future projects without restrictions - provided they meet security requirements, reporting demands, and have a record of adherence to human rights. The regulations will not kick in for 120 days, leaving plenty of wriggle room for Trump to settle into his second presidency and decide on his foreign policy approach regarding China. Chinese President Xi Jinping was invited to, but declined, Trump's inauguration, with the US president-elect threatening heavy tariffs against imported goods with a particular focus on China throughout his election campaign. Ahead of the AI Diffusion announcement, US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said, "the US leads AI now - both AI development and AI chip design, and it's critical that we keep it that way." Much of the motivation behind imposing restrictions on China's ability to import AI chips and manufacturing technologies has been on the basis of national security concerns surrounding the potential for Beijing to introduce advanced AI technologies into its military. Both the Americans for Responsible Innovation group and the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party have praised the AI Diffusion rules focus on basis of national security. In response however, China's Commerce Ministry branded the regulations as "another example of generalizing the concept of national security and abusing export controls," further arguing that the regulations were not in line with established economic and trade rules and are a "blatant violation." Nvidia, which capitalized on the AI tech and software hype to catapult itself to second in the most valuable companies by market cap, also hit back against the regulations in a blog post, with Ned Finkle, vice president of government affairs, stating the AI Diffusion rules are "a 200+ page regulatory morass, drafted in secret and without proper legislative review," adding that the Biden administration was attempting to "rig market outcomes and stifle competition." Finkle also pointed out that the regulation would hit much of the technology that is "already widely available in mainstream gaming PCs and consumer hardware." The blog post concluded with a statement praising innovation and competition during Trump's first term, with Nvidia "look[ing] forward to a return to policies that strengthen American leadership, bolster our economy and preserve our competitive edge in AI and beyond." Via SCMP

Biden administration to announce new rule curbing sale of AI chips to China, Russia

The U.S. launched yet another crackdown on China's semiconductor industry, its third such move in three years. WASHINGTON - The Biden administration is expected to unveil a new rule governing the export of advanced artificial intelligence chips on Monday, aimed at curbing access to cutting-edge technology for countries including China, while making it easier for 18 key allies and partners. "In the wrong hands, powerful AI systems have the potential to exacerbate significant national security risks, including by enabling the development of weapons of mass destruction, supporting powerful offensive cyber operations, and aiding human rights abuses, such as mass surveillance," the White Houses said in a statement. In a call with reporters on Sunday, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the new policy will help build a trusted global technology ecosystem. "Managing these very real national security risks requires taking into account the evolution of AI technology, the capabilities of our adversaries, and the desire of our allies to share in the benefits of this technology," she said. The rule would also provide flexibility and enable countries aligned with U.S. interests to benefit from large-scale purchases. No restrictions apply to chip sales to allies and partners, including tech powerhouses like South Korea and Taiwan, several European allies, the U.K., and Australia. For arms-embargoed countries including China, Russia and North Korea, restrictions on the export of advanced AI chips already exist. With the new rule they will be subject restrictions on transfers of the most powerful AI models. Chip orders with collective computation power up to roughly 1,700 advanced GPUs do not require a license and do not count against national chip caps, the White House said. The overwhelming majority of chip orders are in this category, especially those being placed by universities, medical institutions, and research organizations for clearly innocuous purposes. Raimondo said the idea was to achieve "the twin goals of allowing AI to proliferate around the world, drawing other countries closer to us, but also making sure that we protect ourselves from national security risks." The rule, set in the last week of the Biden administration, will have a 120 day comment period for input from experts, industry players and partner countries. Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House Correspondent for USA TODAY. You can follow her on X @SwapnaVenugopal

Biden administration puts quotas on global AI chip sales

On Monday, the US government announced a new round of regulations on global AI chip exports, dividing the world into roughly three tiers of access. The rules create quotas for about 120 countries and allow unrestricted access for 18 close US allies while maintaining existing bans on China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. AI-accelerating GPU chips, like those manufactured by Nvidia, currently serve as the backbone for a wide variety of AI model deployments, such as chatbots like ChatGPT, AI video generators, self-driving cars, weapons targeting systems, and much more. The Biden administration fears that those chips could be used to undermine US national security. According to the White House, "in the wrong hands, powerful AI systems have the potential to exacerbate significant national security risks, including by enabling the development of weapons of mass destruction, supporting powerful offensive cyber operations, and aiding human rights abuses." The new rules build on previous chip controls from September 2022 and October 2023. The regulations will take effect in 120 days, extending into the incoming Trump administration. The new regulations set specific numerical limits on AI chip exports. While first-tier countries (the 18 key US allies) face no restrictions, countries in the second tier can receive up to 50,000 so-called "advanced computing chips," with the possibility to double that cap to 100,000 if they sign technology security agreements with the US. For most buyers, orders up to 1,700 advanced chips will not require licenses or count against these national caps -- a policy designed to speed up purchases by universities, medical institutions, and research organizations.

Nvidia criticizes reported Biden plan for AI chip export curbs

Jan 9 (Reuters) - Nvidia on Thursday criticized a reported plan by the Joe Biden administration to impose new restrictions on AI chip exports, saying that the outgoing U.S. leader should not "preempt incoming President Trump" by enacting a last-minute policy. "We would encourage President Biden to not preempt incoming President Trump by enacting a policy that will only harm the U.S. economy, set America back, and play into the hands of U.S. adversaries," Nvidia Vice President Ned Finkle said in an emailed statement. The U.S. Commerce Department and the White House did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment outside regular business hours. Reuters reported exclusive details last month on the Commerce Department's plan for approving global AI chip exports while also preventing bad actors from accessing them. A key aim of the restrictions is to keep AI from supercharging China's military capabilities. Bloomberg News reported on Thursday that new export regulations could be announced soon, adding that a group of U.S. adversaries would effectively get blocked from importing these chips, while the vast majority of the world would face limits on the total computing power that can go to one country. Nvidia's Finkle said the reported policy was disguised as an "anti-China move" and warned that the extreme country cap will affect computers around the world and push the world to alternative technologies. "This last-minute Biden administration policy would be a legacy that will be criticized by U.S. industry and the global community," Finkle said. The Information Technology Industry Council, representing companies like Amazon (AMZN.O), opens new tab, Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab and Meta (META.O), opens new tab, has said the rule would place arbitrary constraints on U.S. companies' ability to sell computing systems overseas and cede the global market to competitors. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, in his first term in office, imposed restrictions on the sale of U.S. technology to China citing national security. Trump's second term begins on Jan. 20. Nvidia shares were down more than 1% during extended trading on Thursday after the Bloomberg report. Reporting by Devika Nair and Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru and Karen Freifeld in New York; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Suggested Topics:Artificial Intelligence

New rule will hurt US leadership in AI, Nvidia's official says By Investing.com

Investing.com -- In a statement on Monday, Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) criticized the Biden Administration's proposed "AI Diffusion" rule, claiming it could severely impact the United States' leadership in artificial intelligence. Ned Finkle, Nvidia's vice president of government affairs, expressed concerns that the new regulation would undermine decades of American innovation and economic growth. The Biden Administration now seeks to restrict access to mainstream computing applications with its unprecedented and misguided 'AI Diffusion' rule, which threatens to derail innovation and economic growth worldwide," Finkle wrote. Nvidia highlighted the historical importance of the U.S. government's non-interference in the design and sale of computing and software technologies, which has allowed the country to become a global leader in AI. The company credited the Trump Administration for creating an environment where U.S. industries could thrive without compromising national security. Finkle emphasized that AI's integration into various sectors -- healthcare, agriculture, manufacturing, and education -- has driven global economic growth and positioned the U.S. as a leader in cutting-edge technology. However, he warned that the Biden Administration's proposed rule, a 200-page regulatory document, threatens to derail this progress by imposing bureaucratic control over the design and marketing of semiconductors, computers, and software. "In its last days in office, the Biden Administration seeks to undermine America's leadership with a 200+ page regulatory morass, drafted in secret and without proper legislative review," adds Finkle. Nvidia argues that it would stifle competition, the lifeblood of innovation, and ultimately weaken America's global competitiveness. While the administration has positioned the rule as a countermeasure to China, Nvidia contended it would do little to enhance U.S. security and instead harm the nation's technological advantage. Finkle called for a return to policies that promote innovation and competition, asserting that such an approach would better serve American interests and maintain the country's leadership in AI.

Nvidia flatters Trump in scathing response to Biden's new AI chip restrictions

If implemented, the "Interim Final Rule on Artificial Intelligence Diffusion" announced today would place new limitations on how many artificial intelligence chips companies can send to different countries without making special agreements with the US government. Nvidia will be impacted the most by this, given its estimated 90 percent share of AI chips. The new rules aim to close loopholes that would allow countries like China and Russia -- which are already subject to existing semiconductor trade restrictions -- to obtain or develop their own AI technology. The Biden administration wants to keep transformational AI development under the control of the US and 18 of its allies, which include the UK, Canada, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. All other countries will be subject to caps that restrict AI chip imports.

Nvidia raises worry over Joe Biden government proposal. Will this hurt AI Chip makers?

US stock market's favourite AI Chip manufacturer Nvidia has raised worries even as the Biden administration proposed a new framework for the exporting of the advanced computer chips used to develop artificial intelligence, an attempt to balance national security concerns about the technology with the economic interests of producers and other countries. Ned Finkle, vice president of external affairs at Nvidia, said in a statement that the prior Trump administration had helped create the foundation for AI's development and that the proposed framework would hurt innovation without achieving the stated national security goals. "While cloaked in the guise of an "anti-China" measure, these rules would do nothing to enhance U.S. security," he said. "The new rules would control technology worldwide, including technology that is already widely available in mainstream gaming PCs and consumer hardware." The framework proposed on Monday also raised concerns of chip industry executives who say the rules would limit access to existing chips used for video games and restrict in 120 countries the chips used for data centers and AI products. Mexico, Portugal, Israel and Switzerland are among the nations that could have limited access. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on a call with reporters previewing the framework that it's 'critical' to preserve America's leadership in AI and the development of AI-related computer chips. The fast-evolving AI technology enables computers to produce novels, make scientific research breakthroughs, automate driving and foster a range of other transformations that could reshape economies and warfare. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan stressed that the framework would ensure that the most cutting-edge aspects of AI would be developed within the United States and with its closest allies, instead of possibly getting offshored such as the battery and renewable energy sectors. Because the framework includes a 120-day comment period, the incoming Republican administration of President-elect Donald Trump could ultimately determine the rules for the sales abroad of advanced computer chips. This sets up a scenario in which Trump will have to balance economic interests with the need to keep the United States and its allies safe. Government officials said they felt the need to act quickly in hopes of preserving what is perceived to be America's six- to 18-month advantage on AI over rivals such as China, a head start that could easily erode if competitors were able to stockpile the chips and make further gains. Under the framework, roughly 20 key allies and partners would face no restrictions on accessing chips, but other countries would face caps on the chips they could import, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House. The allies without restrictions include Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. Q1. What is full form of AI? A1. The full form of AI is Artificial Intelligence. Q2. Which countries are facing restrictions? A2. The allies without restrictions include Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan and the United Kingdom.

Nvidia says new rule will weaken US leadership in AI

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nvidia on Monday criticized a new effort by the Biden administration to tighten Washington's grip on artificial intelligence chip flows around the world, saying the regulation would jeopardize current U.S. leadership in AI. The new rule, which is expected to be published as soon as Monday, "threatens to derail innovation and economic growth worldwide," and would "undermine America's leadership," Nvidia Vice President of Government Affairs Ned Finkle said in a statement. Reuters reported last month on the U.S. Commerce Department's plan for approving global AI chip exports while also preventing bad actors from accessing them. One aim of the restrictions is to keep AI from supercharging China's military capabilities. Finkle argued America's leading role in AI would be hurt because the rule "would impose bureaucratic control over how America's leading semiconductors, computers, systems, and even software are designed and marketed globally." The Santa Clara, California-based company also said the rule would not improve U.S. national security and it would control technology that is already widely available in gaming and consumer hardware. "Rather than mitigate any threat, the new Biden rules would only weaken America's global competitiveness, undermining the innovation that has kept the U.S. ahead," Finkle said. (Reporting by Chris Sanders in Washington and Karen Freifeld in New York; Editing by Jamie Freed)

Biden proposes new export controls on GPUs targeting China

Various semiconductor companies have spoken out against the new rule. The Biden administration has unveiled its "," which aims to restrict the export of GPUs that are most coveted for AI applications. Although it does not mention the nation by name, it's broadly viewed as a means to prevent China from outpacing the US in AI development. The rule proposes three licensing tiers. The first tier is unrestricted and includes the domestic market as well as 18 strategic allies. The majority of countries fall into a second tier, which will have caps on how much compute power they can import via top GPUs from the US. The third tier includes China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, and effectively bars US companies from selling their most powerful GPUs there. US-based companies would also be prevented from sharing many details of their AI software models with countries outside that first tier, and would need to ask permission from the federal government before building large data centers in any tier two nation. Many parties, including the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), issued condemning the decision, believing that the restrictions will do more to push nations towards working with China. "The new rule risks causing unintended and lasting damage to America's economy and global competitiveness in semiconductors and AI by ceding strategic markets to our competitors," SIA wrote. NVIDIA also objected, with Ned Finkle, the company's Vice President of Government Affairs, saying the Biden Administration "seeks to undermine America's leadership with a 200+ page regulatory morass, drafted in secret and without proper legislative review." The rule has a 120 day comment period, so whether it survives the incoming Trump administration remains an open question.

Nvidia Warns New US AI Chip Rules Will Harm Innovation | PYMNTS.com

Tech giant Nvidia has pushed back against a new regulation from the Biden administration aimed at tightening controls on the global export of artificial intelligence (AI) chips. The Santa Clara-based company expressed concerns that the rule could stifle innovation and harm the United States' leadership in AI technology, according to Reuters. The new regulation, expected to be published on Monday, would grant the U.S. government greater oversight of AI chip exports in an effort to prevent adversarial nations from gaining access to advanced AI capabilities. Reuters previously reported that the U.S. Commerce Department has been working on measures to approve global AI chip sales while restricting their use by hostile actors, particularly to curb China's military advancements. However, Nvidia's Vice President of Government Affairs, Ned Finkle, criticized the rule, arguing it would do more harm than good for U.S. competitiveness. "The rule threatens to derail innovation and economic growth worldwide," Finkle stated, according to Reuters. He emphasized that the restrictions would weaken America's position as a global leader in AI by adding bureaucratic hurdles to how cutting-edge technology is developed and distributed internationally. Related: Nvidia's $700 Million Buyout of Run:ai Gets EU Approval, Deal Finalized Nvidia's concerns center on the potential economic impact of the rule, which the company believes will impose strict government controls on widely available technology. The company pointed out that many of the AI chips in question are already being used in gaming devices and consumer electronics, suggesting that the rule may not achieve its intended national security goals. According to Reuters, the Biden administration's broader aim with these restrictions is to prevent adversarial nations from using AI to enhance their military capabilities. But Nvidia contends that the move would stifle American innovation without significantly improving security. "Rather than mitigate any threat, the new Biden rules would only weaken America's global competitiveness, undermining the innovation that has kept the U.S. ahead," Finkle said in the statement. As AI continues to evolve as a critical component of defense, economic, and technological strategies worldwide, companies like Nvidia are increasingly vocal about the balance between national security and the need to maintain a competitive edge. Per Reuters, this new round of export controls marks a significant escalation in the U.S. government's efforts to limit China's access to cutting-edge AI technologies.

Nvidia criticizes reported Biden plan for AI chip export curbs

(Reuters) - Nvidia on Thursday criticized a reported plan by the Joe Biden administration to impose new restrictions on AI chip exports, saying that the outgoing U.S. leader should not "preempt incoming President Trump" by enacting a last-minute policy. "We would encourage President Biden to not preempt incoming President Trump by enacting a policy that will only harm the U.S. economy, set America back, and play into the hands of U.S. adversaries," Nvidia Vice President Ned Finkle said in an emailed statement. The U.S. Commerce Department and the White House did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment outside regular business hours. Reuters reported exclusive details last month on the Commerce Department's plan for approving global AI chip exports while also preventing bad actors from accessing them. A key aim of the restrictions is to keep AI from supercharging China's military capabilities. Bloomberg News reported on Thursday that new export regulations could be announced soon, adding that a group of U.S. adversaries would effectively get blocked from importing these chips, while the vast majority of the world would face limits on the total computing power that can go to one country. Nvidia's Finkle said the reported policy was disguised as an "anti-China move" and warned that the extreme country cap will affect computers around the world and push the world to alternative technologies. "This last-minute Biden administration policy would be a legacy that will be criticized by U.S. industry and the global community," Finkle said. The Information Technology Industry Council, representing companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Meta, has said the rule would place arbitrary constraints on U.S. companies' ability to sell computing systems overseas and cede the global market to competitors. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, in his first term in office, imposed restrictions on the sale of U.S. technology to China citing national security. Trump's second term begins on Jan. 20. Nvidia shares were down more than 1% during extended trading on Thursday after the Bloomberg report. (Reporting by Devika Nair and Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru and Karen Freifeld in New York; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)

NVIDIA Publicly Opposes Biden's Newest AI Chip Export Controls; Claiming Global Progress In Now In Jeopardy

NVIDIA has apparently sided with Trump's AI policies, as Team Green massively criticizes Biden's last-minute chip export controls, claiming they threaten American technology. Well, for those unaware, the Biden administration has now imposed a new set of regulations on chip exports that allows the US to have a far more significant influence on the computing power given to a particular nation. Called the "Interim Final Rule on Artificial Intelligence Diffusion," this act by the US is focused on ensuring that hostile nations, along with companies that have their headquarters in such countries, are prevented from getting access to cutting-edge AI equipment. In contrast, allied nations benefit the most, creating a massive disparity. The act will provide friendly nations with complete access to AI chips without any restrictions, while certain countries, mainly China and Russia, will be barred from getting their hands on cutting-edge technology. The remaining countries will be limited to the computing power they can acquire, except for private corporations in such nations, which are validated end-users (VEU). This act essentially means that the administration can nitpick nations/organizations that can access high-end AI chips, putting suppliers like NVIDIA in massive trouble. Interestingly, NVIDIA responded to this act in a dedicated blog post, which is unusual considering that the Biden government has imposed a set of regulations in the past that have remained unresponded to. Team Green claims that "global progress is now in jeopardy," saying that the first Trump administration laid the foundations of America's AI success, which are now at stake. This is an interesting take by Jensen & Co., considering that Trump's inauguration is right around the corner. In its last days in office, the Biden Administration seeks to undermine America's leadership with a 200+ page regulatory morass, drafted in secret and without proper legislative review. This sweeping overreach would impose bureaucratic control over how America's leading semiconductors, computers, systems and even software are designed and marketed globally. And by attempting to rig market outcomes and stifle competition -- the lifeblood of innovation -- the Biden Administration's new rule threatens to squander America's hard-won technological advantage. - NVIDIA NVIDIA blatantly claims that the act is in no way protecting the US's national interest, claiming that it would weaken America's global competitiveness. So, this stance towards the Biden decision is indeed something to notice, considering that NVIDIA's "politeness" towards Trump's incoming surely hasn't been noticed here. Not just this, but Team Green's CEO previously claimed that he would love to visit Trump at Mar-a-Lago to congratulate him on the election victory, showing that NVIDIA has picked sides for now. It would be interesting to see how the upcoming administration decides to deal with the act and NVIDIA's stance towards it, considering that the US's biggest AI firm has now publicly opposed it.

Nvidia, SIA fire back at US export restrictions on AI GPUs to China

However, companies in the U.S. and allied nations will get unrestricted access. Bloomberg reports that the Biden administration is preparing a final set of export restrictions on advanced AI GPUs. Under the new rules, only companies from the U.S. and 18 allies can buy AI GPUs without limits. Entities from other countries will have limited access to AI GPUs unless they obtain validated end user (VEU) status. China, Russia, Macau, and other arms-embargoed nations will face a near-total ban on AI GPU imports. Nvidia and the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) strongly oppose the decision. "AI is mainstream computing - ubiquitous and essential as electricity," a statement by Ned Finkle, Vice President of Government Affairs at Nvidia, reads. "This last-minute Biden Administration policy would be a legacy that will be criticized by U.S. industry and the global community. We would encourage President Biden to not preempt incoming President Trump by enacting a policy that will only harm the U.S. economy, set America back, and play into the hands of U.S. adversaries." The new export rules reportedly divide the world into three tiers; each tier will have a different level of access to advanced AI GPUs developed in the U.S. In addition to hardware restrictions, the plan limits the export of closed AI model weights. Companies are barred from hosting powerful models in Tier 3 nations and must comply with security standards to host them in Tier 2 countries. Open-weight models remain unrestricted. However, suppose an AI company intends to fine-tune a general-purpose open-weight model for a specific application that requires substantial computing power. In that case, it must obtain a U.S. government license to carry out the work in a Tier 2 country, according to the report. The proposal has drawn criticism from the semiconductor industry in general and Nvidia in particular. The Semiconductor Industry Association also expressed concerns, calling for more deliberation and industry input before implementing changes of such magnitude. "It makes no sense for the Biden White House to control everyday data center computers and technology already in gaming PCs worldwide, disguised as an anti-China move," Finkle wrote. "The extreme 'country cap' policy will affect mainstream computers in countries around the world, doing nothing to promote national security but pushing the world to alternative technologies." Despite the criticism, U.S. officials consider the policy a strategic move to leverage American dominance in AI technology. American chips outperform Chinese counterparts, giving the U.S. a unique opportunity to shape global standards and attract companies and nations toward its technological orbit. Nvidia opposes the move, saying it will encourage Chinese companies to find alternatives to American technology, which will hurt Nvidia's short-term sales and pose competitive pressure in the long term.

How the new AI chip rule from the US will work

(Reuters) - The U.S. government said on Monday it would issue a new regulation designed to control access to U.S.-designed artificial intelligence chips and technology by other countries around the world. The rule regulates the flow of American AI chips and technology needed for the most sophisticated AI applications. The rule restricts the export of chips known as graphics processing units (GPUs), specialized processors originally created to accelerate graphics rendering. Although known for their role in gaming, the ability of GPUs such as those made by U.S.-based industry leader Nvidia to process different pieces of data simultaneously has made them valuable for training and running AI models. OpenAI's ChatGPT, for example, is trained and improved on tens of thousands of GPUs. The number of GPUs needed for an AI model depends on how advanced the GPU is, how much data is being used to train the model, the size of the model itself and the time the developer wants to spend training it. WHAT IS THE U.S. DOING? To control global access to AI, the U.S. is expanding restrictions on advanced GPUs needed to build the clusters used to train advanced AI models. The limits on GPUs for most countries in the new rule are set by compute power, to account for differences in individual chips. Total processing performance (TPP) is a metric used to measure the computational power of a chip. Under the regulation, countries with caps on compute power are restricted to a total of 790 million TPP through 2027. The cap translates into the equivalent of nearly 50,000 H100 Nvidia GPUs, according to Divyansh Kaushik, an AI expert at Beacon Global Strategies, a Washington-based advisory firm. "Fifty thousand H100s is an enormous amount of power - enough to fuel cutting-edge research, run entire AI companies or support the most demanding AI applications on the planet," he said. Those could include running a global-scale chatbot service or managing advanced real-time systems like fraud detection or personalized recommendations for massive companies like Amazon or Netflix, Kaushik added. But the caps do not reflect the true limit on the number of H100 chips in a country. Companies like Amazon Web Services or Microsoft's Azure cloud unit that meet the requirements for special authorizations - also known as "Universal Verified End User" status - are exempt from the caps. National authorizations also are available to companies headquartered in any destination that is not a "country of concern." Those with national Verified End User status have caps of roughly 320,000 advanced GPUs over the next two years. "The country caps are specifically designed to encourage companies to secure Verified End User status," Kaushik said, providing greater visibility to U.S. authorities about who is using them and helping to prevent GPUs from being smuggled into China. ARE THERE OTHER EXCEPTIONS TO THE LICENSING? Yes. If a buyer orders small quantities of GPUs - the equivalent of up to some 1,700 H100 chips - they will not count toward the caps, and only require government notification, not a license. Most chip orders fall below the limit, especially those placed by universities, medical institutions, and research organizations, the U.S. said. This exception is designed to accelerate low-risk shipments of U.S. chips globally. Eighteen destinations are exempt from country caps on advanced GPUs, according to a senior administration official. Those are Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and Taiwan plus the United States. WHAT IS BEING DONE WITH 'MODEL WEIGHTS'? Another item being controlled by the U.S. is known as "model weights." AI models are trained to produce meaningful material by being fed large quantities of data. At the same time, algorithms evaluate the outputs to improve the model's performance. The algorithms adjust numerical parameters that weigh the results of certain operations more than others to better complete tasks. Those parameters are model weights. The rule sets security standards to protect the weights of advanced "closed-weight", or non-public, models. Overall, Kaushik said, the restrictions are aimed at ensuring the most advanced AI is developed and deployed in trusted and secure environments. (Reporting by Karen Freifeld; Editing by Chris Sanders and Jamie Freed)

Nvidia says Biden's new chip restrictions will 'harm' the economy and set the U.S. back

How Donald Trump's tariff rhetoric could reshape investment strategies, according to a strategist President Joe Biden's last round of chip export controls would curb the sale of artificial intelligence chips from U.S. firms such as Nvidia to specific countries and companies, Bloomberg reported. The rules, which are expected days before Biden leaves office, aim to support AI development among U.S. allies and promote U.S. standards globally, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. "The extreme 'country cap' policy will affect mainstream computers in countries around the world, doing nothing to promote national security but rather pushing the world to alternative technologies," Ned Finkle, vice president of government affairs at Nvidia, said in a statement shared with Bloomberg. Finkle said the export controls are being "disguised as an anti-China move," and that "[i]t makes no sense for the Biden White House to control everyday data-center computers and technology that is already in gaming PCs worldwide." The new export controls will reportedly include three tiers of chip restrictions, which give friendly nations full access to U.S.-made chips but add new limitations to others, such as how much computing power a nation can receive. Companies in nations facing limits can reportedly bypass them and receive a higher cap with a validated end-user designation, which has security and human rights standards requirements set by the U.S. Countries deemed as adversaries will not be allowed to import semiconductors under the new rules. "This last-minute Biden administration policy would be a legacy that will be criticized by U.S. industry and the global community," Finkle said. "We would encourage President Biden to not preempt incoming President Trump by enacting a policy that will only harm the U.S. economy, set America back, and play into the hands of US adversaries." Meanwhile, Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang said earlier this week that he's ready to meet with the incoming Trump administration to help with AI policy. "I'd be delighted to go see him and congratulate him, and do whatever we can to make this administration succeed," Huang told Bloomberg Television about Donald Trump. He added that he has not yet been invited to meet with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. Nvidia's shares were down by around 2.7% during Friday morning trading. Earlier in the week, Huang made several announcements about the chipmaker's AI and robotics efforts during his keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Nvidia: Further Restrictions on AI Chip Exports Would 'Harm Economy'

President Biden is reportedly about to add more chip export restrictions -- and Nvidia isn't happy. "We would encourage President Biden to not preempt incoming President Trump by enacting a policy that will only harm the US economy, set America back, and play into the hands of US adversaries," Nvidia VP Ned Finkle tells Reuters on Friday. The possible restrictions, which could be announced as soon as Friday, are being designed to try to stop AI chips for data centers from being shipped to certain countries, Bloomberg reported this week, citing anonymous sources familiar with the plans. US allies like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Nordic countries, French Guiana, and most of Western Europe would face little restrictions. This means they could be able to import virtually any type of chip from Intel, AMD, or Nvidia in large quantities, potentially without limits. Much of Central and South America -- as well as much of Africa, the Middle East, Portugal, Eastern Europe, Switzerland, and Southeast Asia -- would face more restrictions, but it's currently unclear what types of US chips they might be able to import. These countries could face limits on the amount of chips they could import to limit their overall computing power, according to the report. But they could potentially be exempted from the new rules if they agree to certain human rights standards and US security expectations the US government sets. Countries that the US has military or trade tensions with already, like China, Russia, Belarus, and parts of the Middle East, would face the most restrictions, according to a map Bloomberg made depicting the upcoming geographic rules. Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Libya, Sudan, South Sudan, the DRC, the Central Republic of Africa, Zimbabwe, Somalia, Myanmar, Cambodia, Iraq, Syria, Iran, and other countries are also expected to face the highest level of US chip restrictions. Many of these countries already face US sanctions because they have been deemed US adversaries or have militias that the US has labeled terrorist groups. The anticipated rules may completely attempt to stop any US chip imports into these countries. "A last-minute rule restricting exports to most of the world would be a major shift in policy that would not reduce the risk of misuse but would threaten economic growth and US leadership," Nvidia told Bloomberg in a statement published on Thursday. "The worldwide interest in accelerated computing for everyday applications is a tremendous opportunity for the US to cultivate, promoting the economy and adding US jobs." The US already has chip export restrictions on sanctioned countries, and has been trying to stop advanced Nvidia chips from being smuggled into China. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC), a major chip manufacturer for Nvidia and Apple, had to investigate its buying clients after US-sanctioned Chinese tech giant Huawei got ahold of some TSMC chips and put one in its latest AI processor. In December, the US added more chip restrictions, sanctioning 140 companies and restricting AI memory exports. When Trump was previously President, his tariffs on China spurred Nvidia to ask Biden in 2021 to make some exceptions to those rules.

Nvidia can't wait for Trump as it bashes Biden's 'misguided' AI rules -- and the stock falls

How Donald Trump's tariff rhetoric could reshape investment strategies, according to a strategist The White House published a swath of new guidelines early Monday to curb the sale of AI chips from U.S. firms such as Nvidia to specific countries and companies. The administration said the rules would "strengthen U.S. security and economic strength." But Ned Finkle, vice president of government affairs at Nvidia, called the policies "unprecedented and misguided." In a company blog post, he slammed the outgoing administration for jeopardizing global progress on AI. "In its last days in office, the Biden Administration seeks to undermine America's leadership with a 200+ page regulatory morass, drafted in secret and without proper legislative review," Finkle said. "This sweeping overreach would impose bureaucratic control over how America's leading semiconductors, computers, systems and even software are designed and marketed globally." Nvidia stock fell almost 3% in pre-market trading Monday. Under the new guidelines, 18 key U.S. allies and partners would not be affected by the restrictions. Companies that meet high security and trust standards set by the U.S., and are headquartered in countries that are considered close allies and partners, would have the chance to obtain "Universal Verified End User" (UVEU) status. This designation would allow them to locate parts of their computational power in allied countries, and buy up to 320,000 advanced GPUs over the next two years. Nvidia argued that these controls are an overreach, and would "do nothing to enhance U.S. security." "Rather than mitigate any threat, the new Biden rules would only weaken America's global competitiveness, undermining the innovation that has kept the U.S. ahead," Finkle said. At the same time, Finkle praised the first Trump administration for laying "the foundation for America's current strength and success in AI, fostering an environment where U.S. industry could compete and win on merit without compromising national security." With President-elect Donald Trump set to take office in exactly one week, Big Tech leaders from Google (GOOGL-0.80%) chief Sundar Pichai to Meta (META+0.94%) CEO Mark Zuckerberg have been cozying up to Trump. They're hoping to benefit from favorable policies, more lax regulation, and a pro-innovation environment that they hope will allow them to go full steam ahead on their AI ambitions -- and beyond. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang himself said last week week that he's ready to meet with the incoming Trump administration to help with AI policy. "I'd be delighted to go see him and congratulate him, and do whatever we can to make this administration succeed," Huang told Bloomberg Television about Trump. He added that he has not yet been invited to meet with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

US clamps down on AI chip export drawing pushback

The US is moving to impose tough new restrictions on the export of advanced computer chips and other artificial intelligence (AI) technology to dozens of countries - not just the handful it has long identified as adversaries. Officials say the new rules are intended to make sure the "the world's AI runs on American rails" and keep it out of the hands of "malicious actors" who could use it to threaten the United States. The Biden administration said 18 allies and partners, including the UK, were exempt from the restrictions. The announcement, days before President Joe Biden is due to leave office, has drawn fierce criticism from some top US tech companies who warn it will only aid competitors.

White House unveils new curbs on exporting Nvidia AI chips

The White House has unveiled sweeping new limits on the sale of advanced artificial intelligence chips by Nvidia and its peers, leaving the Trump administration to decide how and whether to implement curbs that have encountered fierce industry opposition. The rules, which are set to take effect in one year, establish caps on the amount of computing power that can be sold to most countries. Businesses in those places can bypass national limits by agreeing to a set of security and human rights standards, U.S. officials said Sunday. Companies will have a 120-day comment period -- which is exceptionally long -- to give the Trump administration time to get settled in and make changes to the rule after consulting with industry and other countries, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters ahead of the release.

White House Unveils New Curbs on Exporting Nvidia AI Chips

The White House unveiled sweeping new limits on the sale of advanced AI chips by Nvidia Corp. and its peers, leaving the Trump administration to decide how and whether to implement curbs that have encountered fierce industry opposition. The rules, which are set to take effect in one year, establish caps on the amount of computing power that can be sold to most countries. Businesses in those places can bypass national limits by agreeing to a set of security and human rights standards, US officials said Sunday.

Biden gov't unveils more controls on AI chip exports; no curbs for Korea, other allies

The U.S. flag on a processor, CPU Central processing Unit or GPU microchip on a motherboard / gettyimagesbank The Biden administration on Monday announced new restrictions on artificial intelligence (AI) chip exports in its last move to block the flow of advanced technologies into China, Russia and other "countries of concern" on national security grounds. Just a week before its term ends, the administration released an interim final rule, under which no chip sale restrictions will apply to 20 key U.S. allies and partners, including Korea, while for many other countries, it sets up a cap for the amount of computational power they can purchase. "This policy will help build a trusted technology ecosystem around the world and allow us to protect against the national security risks associated with AI, while ensuring controls do not stifle innovation or U.S. technological leadership," Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said. The 20 allies and partners include Japan, Australia, Canada, Germany, France and New Zealand. Entities that meet high security and trust standards, and are headquartered in those countries can obtain "universal verified end user (UVEU)" status, according to the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). With the UVEU status, the entities can place up to 7 percent of their global AI computational capacity -- likely amounting to hundreds of thousands of chips -- in countries around the world. Entities without the verified end user status, which are located outside of close U.S. allies, can still purchase large amounts of computational power -- up to the equivalent of 50,000 advanced graphics processing units (GPUs). The chip cap can double to 100,000 GPUs if an arrangement is signed to align with U.S. export and other standards. Entities that meet security requirements and are headquartered in any place that is not a country of concern can apply for the "national verified end user" status, which will allow them to buy computational power equivalent to up to 320,000 GPUs over the next two years. Chip orders with collective computational power up to about 1,700 advanced GPUs do not require a license and do not count against national chip caps. The overwhelming majority of chip orders are in this category, including those placed by universities and medical institutions, according to the BIS. The rule continues to ensure that advanced semiconductors sold abroad are not used by China, Russia and other countries of concern, while still permitting access for general-purpose applications from telecommunications to banking, it said. "The rule both provides greater clarity to our international partners and to industry, and counters the serious circumvention and related national security risks posed by countries of concern and malicious actors who may seek to use the advanced American technologies against us," National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said. AI chipmakers in the U.S. reportedly remain opposed to the rule as it could get in the way of their efforts to sell their products overseas at a time of growing demand for AI applications worldwide. (Yonhap)

US Further Restricts Nvidia AI Exports, Caps GPU Purchases for Select Nations

The US has unveiled more restrictions on advanced AI chip exports, according to a White House press release published on Monday. The rules, which were leaked earlier this month, take a nation-based approach where countries are divided into one of three tiers. One tier puts no chip export restrictions on countries, which are 18 US allies, while a second tier puts some quantity restrictions on other countries. The third tier bars all advanced chip exports to countries on that list entirely. Last week, a report found that countries like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Nordic countries, and most of Western Europe would face no chip restrictions, meaning they can import as many advanced US chips as they'd like. But much of Central and South America as well as much of Africa, the Middle East, Portugal, Eastern Europe, Switzerland, and Southeast Asia would face some restrictions. Nations in this second tier would still be able to import some advanced AI chips, but they would be subject to a maximum of 1,700 advanced GPUs per order without a license, with orders under 1,700 not counting toward the per-country maximum of 50,000 advanced GPUs each. The White House says this 1,700 number should be enough for most purposes. "The overwhelming majority of chip orders are in this category, especially those being placed by universities, medical institutions, and research organizations for clearly innocuous purposes. Streamlined processing of these orders represents an improvement over the status quo, rapidly accelerating low-risk shipments of US technology around the world," the Biden White House's release reads. Countries facing chip caps can increase the number of allowed chips if nations or importers adhere to certain US security standards. Those who apply for "National Verified End User" status could be allowed to buy up to 320,000 GPUs over the next two years. Nations under a full chip export ban -- which includes China and Russia as well as other US-sanctioned countries -- are being further restricted in an effort to stop them from training AI models or using AI for military or intelligence purposes. Nvidia, the largest US designer and seller of advanced AI chips, has repeatedly protested this latest round of restrictions. The White House says the new rules are intended to make and keep the US a leader in AI, but Nvidia VP of Government Affairs Ned Finkle argues this will "undermine America's leadership." "A last-minute rule restricting exports to most of the world would be a major shift in policy that would not reduce the risk of misuse but would threaten economic growth and US leadership," an Nvidia spokesperson previously told Bloomberg in a statement. "The worldwide interest in accelerated computing for everyday applications is a tremendous opportunity for the US to cultivate, promoting the economy and adding US jobs." Oracle has similarly protested the new restrictions, arguing that "GPU supply chains are tightly controlled" already and that the new set of rules "likely pushes the rest of the world to Chinese technology, which the CCP will be only too happy to leverage to catch up with the US." But Nvidia, Oracle, and others will have 120 days to comment on the legislation to protest the rules. This means the incoming Trump administration could make changes when President-elect Trump takes office Jan. 20. This latest round of restrictions could help limit who gets access to advanced Nvidia chips. But it's possible this may not be enough to close existing loopholes -- like where individuals smuggle chips from a more US-friendly country to China.

Nvidia stock slides 2% amid new AI export limits: Should you be worried?

Nvidia stock (NVDA) fell nearly 2% on Monday following the Biden administration's announcement of updated export rules aimed at restricting the flow of artificial intelligence chips to adversaries, including China. The White House stated that the new rule would limit the quantity of AI chips, specifically graphics processing units (GPUs), that can be ordered by most countries without a special license. Orders for 1,700 or fewer GPUs will not be counted towards the export cap. "Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming central to both security and economic strength," the White House added. It emphasized the need for the U.S. to ensure its technology supports global AI use while preventing adversaries from abusing advanced AI. Nvidia warns: New AI chip rules could hurt America's edge in tech The updated restrictions impose a cap on the compute capacity of a group of AI chips that can be shipped to most countries, with 18 key U.S. allies, including the UK, Netherlands, and Taiwan, facing no restrictions. Conversely, 24 countries subject to arms controls, such as China, North Korea, and Russia, will continue to be banned from receiving exports of the latest AI chips. Under the new rule, U.S. companies can ship AI chips with a total compute capacity of 790 transistors per square millimeter to eligible countries. This figure translates to around 50,000 Nvidia Hopper chips or 20,000 of its latest Blackwell chips, according to Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon. Countries affected include U.S. allies such as Switzerland and Israel. For context, Microsoft reportedly purchased 485,000 Nvidia Hopper GPUs in 2024, while Meta acquired 224,000 of the AI chips. The purpose of these restrictions is to close loopholes in previous export regulations on AI chips enacted in 2022 and 2023, focusing on thwarting smuggling and enhancing AI security standards. DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria noted that these regulations would make it more challenging for Chinese entities to access advanced Nvidia chips, as there have been reports of such chips reaching China despite prior restrictions. Nvidia has specific versions of chips compliant with existing U.S. trade regulations, including its H20 chips designed for China, which should remain unaffected by the new controls, according to Rasgon. Nvidia's vice president of government affairs, Ned Finkle, criticized the rule as being "drafted in secret and without proper legislative review." He argued that the new regulations threaten innovation and competition in the tech industry, claiming that they could squander America's technological advantage. Finkle expressed hope for a policy return that prioritizes innovation and competition, noting the achievements during the first Trump administration. In a note to investors, Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya maintained a Buy rating on Nvidia stock but suggested that the new export rule complicates the situation for the AI chipmaker. Additionally, Citi analyst Atif Malik pointed out the risks posed by the export cap for Nvidia's GPU sales, particularly concerning data centers that constitute a significant portion of the company's revenue. The decrease in Nvidia's stock on Monday follows a 3% drop on Friday amid anticipation of the updated export controls. Overall, shares have declined around 9% over the past five sessions. The stock also faced downward pressure after HSBC reduced its price target for Nvidia from $195 to $185, citing ongoing supply chain concerns regarding the Blackwell chips. Why Nvidia's record high was followed by a $220B sell-off The Semiconductor Industry Association echoed Nvidia's concerns about the new regulations. SIA Chief Executive John Neuffer expressed disappointment at the pace and lack of industry consultation surrounding the policy shift, stating that it could have detrimental impacts on the U.S. economy and its competitive position in the semiconductor and AI sectors. The Biden administration's interim final rule, "Export Control Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion," is designed to impose additional restrictions on the sale of AI processors and systems while emphasizing national security. As President Biden transitions power to President-elect Donald Trump on Jan. 20, concerns grow about the implications of these last-minute regulations on innovation and growth in the tech industry.

Nvidia denounces Biden administration's 'rigged' and 'misguided' new AI chip export restrictions

Nvidia has dropped a blog post bomb on the Biden administration's new AI chip export restrictions, announced earlier today and rumoured for some time. Nvidia's vice president of government affairs, Ned Finkle, denounced the plans as "misguided" and an attempt to "rig" the market. Nvidia also sought to flatter the incoming President, crediting Trump for America's "current strength and success in AI." Finkle's blog post is borderline brutal in its dismissal of the new rules being imposed in the dying days of the Biden administration. "The Biden Administration now seeks to restrict access to mainstream computing applications with its unprecedented and misguided 'AI Diffusion' rule, which threatens to derail innovation and economic growth worldwide," Finkle said, describing the new rules as a "200+ page regulatory morass, drafted in secret and without proper legislative review." Ouch. He also claimed this "sweeping overreach" was an attempt to "rig market outcomes and stifle competition." Moreover, Finkle says the rules, which are designed to prevent America's adversaries from acquiring advanced AI technology, won't work anyway. "Rather than mitigate any threat, the new Biden rules would only weaken America's global competitiveness, undermining the innovation that has kept the U.S. ahead," he claimed. For the record, the new rules are indeed pretty sweeping. They impose quotas on sales of AI GPUs to most countries in the world, the idea being to block Chinese efforts to circumvent earlier export controls on GPUs into China specifically. No question, this would all have a direct and substantial impact on Nvidia. But Nvidia isn't the only big tech entity upset by the new rules. Oracle Executive Vice President Ken Glueck said the new export regime "does more to achieve extreme regulatory overreach than protect US interests and those of our partners and allies," adding that it, "practically enshrines the law of intended consequences and will cost the US critical technology leadership." For its part, the Biden administration has emphasized that 18 key US allies, including Australia, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, are subject to no restrictions at all and that, "chip orders with collective computation power up to roughly 1,700 advanced GPUs do not require a license and do not count against national chip caps." We also can't help noticing how the blog post seemed to court favour with incoming President Donald Trump. "The first Trump Administration laid the foundation for America's current strength and success in AI, fostering an environment where U.S. industry could compete and win on merit without compromising national security. As a result, mainstream AI has become an integral part of every new application, driving economic growth, promoting U.S. interests and ensuring American leadership in cutting-edge technology," Finkle said. The vituperative language used by Finkle, particularly his accusation that the Biden administration is attempting to "rig" the market and calling the document itself a "morass" likewise feel like they're straight out of the Donald Trump playbook of hyperbolic criticism, as opposed to the sort of measured critique of government policy you might normally expect from a major corporate entity. The cynical interpretation here is that Nvidia is attempting to play on the perception that Trump is easily flattered. By giving Trump the credit for the current AI boom and also throwing in some Biden trash talking sweeteners, this interpretation would say, Nvidia hopes that Trump will go easy on any new import restrictions and maybe even immediately repeal these Biden rules. After all, if Trump thinks he is responsible for the AI boom, he won't want to kill it, right? And anything imposed by the Biden administration is bound to be something he's opposed to? It's a no brainer, no? Perhaps. But whatever Nvidia's actual intentions and motivations, this is a pretty eye-popping blog post and certainly not the usual bland, corporate fare. It will be fascinating to see how this all plays out, if the Trump administration does cancel these new rules and what, if anything, they're replaced with. Anywho, our immediate take on the new rules is that they won't have much impact on gaming GPUs as opposed to AI chips, with the exception of the new RTX 5090 and the existing RTX 4090. We think everything below those cards should fall outside the rules, but we'll update if that turns out not to be the case.

EU commissioners unhappy with Biden's AI trade restrictions

Export controls would limit shipments of GPUs to large swaths of EU The European Commission is displeased with the Biden administration's plans to extend export controls on AI chips and models to most of the world. In a joint statement released on Monday, Executive VP for technological sovereignty Henna Virkkunen and Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič expressed concerns about the measures, which limit the quantity of AI hardware some EU member nations can import. "We are concerned about the US measures adopted today restricting access to advanced AI chip exports for selected EU member states and their companies," they wrote. "We believe it is also in the US economic and security interest that the EU buys advanced AI chips from the US without limitations: we cooperate closely, in particular in the field of security, and represent an economic opportunity for the US, not a security risk." We represent an economic opportunity for the US, not a security risk Under the rules detailed by the White House on Monday, the US, Japan, UK, South Korea, and the Netherlands will be exempt from rules import caps. Countries of concern, most notably Russia, China, and Iran, would be barred from purchasing the tech outright. The Biden administration suggested the measures will enhance the USA's national security and economic strength. As we understand it, the rules will come into effect 120 days from publication - meaning they'll be enacted once president-elect Donald Trump assumes office, and long after current president Joe Biden has left the White House. Virkkunen and Šefčovič wrote they've nonetheless engaged with the Biden administration but also hope to discuss the rules with Trump's team. "We have already shared our concerns with the current US administration and we are looking forward to engaging constructively with the next US administration. We are confident that we can find a way to maintain a secure transatlantic supply chain on AI technology and super computers, for the benefit of our companies and citizens on both sides of the Atlantic," Virkkunen and Šefčovič wrote. The Register asked the Trump transition team for comment and will report any substantial remarks we receive. As we reported earlier today, GPU giant Nvidia has also raised concerns with the rules, arguing that, if implemented, they threatened to "squander America's hard-won technological advantage" rather than protect US interests. ®

Joe Biden Vs. Jensen Huang: What White House's New Chip Export Restrictions Mean For Nvidia That Has The AI Giant Up In Arms - NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA)

Nvidia Inc. NVDA, the artificial intelligence powerhouse led by Jensen Huang is pushing back against new semiconductor export regulations imposed by President Joe Biden's administration. What Happened: The Commerce Department's fresh 168-page rule aims to control the global flow of graphics processing units, a key area where Nvidia dominates with an estimated 90% market share. While the restrictions target national security, critics, including Nvidia, argue the move could stifle AI innovation. Nvidia's response, however, reflects concerns about the broader economic impact. "This rule threatens to derail innovation and economic growth worldwide," said Nvidia's VP of government affairs, Ned Finkle, in a statement. The company has previously tailored products to meet regulatory changes, creating a less powerful chip for the Chinese market in 2022. The regulations, unveiled on Monday, classify countries into three categories for GPU export controls. While 18 U.S. allies, including the UK and Japan, will have unrestricted access, the most advanced GPUs will be prohibited from reaching countries like China, Russia, and Iran. The remaining nations face caps on GPU exports, with larger orders requiring U.S. government approval. See Also: Tom Lee Forecasts Bitcoin Could Dip To $50K, But Maintains Long-Term Target Of $250K Amid Market Volatility Why It Matters: Experts remain divided on the potential consequences. Chris Miller, a semiconductor industry expert, suggests that while Nvidia may face reduced demand from certain countries, the high demand for its products could mitigate the impact, reported Business Insider on Monday. Still, others argue the rule could push global AI infrastructure development toward U.S. firms, with the Middle East and other regions excluded from the free-flowing GPU access. The Biden administration cites national security concerns, warning that advanced AI technology could fuel mass surveillance and weapon development. Supporters of the policy, including some Republicans, believe these controls are essential to counter China's growing AI capabilities. The regulations, subject to a 120-day comment period, are expected to take effect under President-elect Donald Trump's administration, raising questions about their long-term effectiveness. Price Action: Nvidia stock closed at $133.23 on Monday, down 1.97% for the day. In after-hours trading, the stock surged by 1.28%. Over the past year, Nvidia's stock has surged by 136.31%, according to data from Benzinga Pro. Read Next: Tesla Shares Rise Over 2% After Hours On Morgan Stanley's Price Target Hike, FSD Breakthroughs: Gary Black Highlights Key Drivers Image Via Shutterstock Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. NVDANVIDIA Corp$134.931.28%Overview Rating:Good75%Technicals Analysis1000100Financials Analysis600100WatchlistOverviewMarket News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Nvidia Slams Biden's Country-Specific Chip Rules: 'Legacy That Will Be Criticized' - NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA)

Nvidia Corp. NVDA has expressed strong disapproval of the Biden administration's anticipated chip export restrictions. The proposed regulations aim to limit the global sale of U.S. artificial intelligence chips. What Happened: The new rules, expected to be announced as soon as Friday, are designed to curb chip exports to most nations, with a focus on preventing advanced technology from reaching China and Russia. Ned Finkle, Nvidia's vice president of government affairs, criticized the policy, arguing it would not bolster national security but instead push the world towards alternative technologies, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. Finkle contended that the policy, which includes a "country cap," would affect mainstream computers globally. He highlighted that the technology in question is already common in gaming PCs and everyday data-center computers, questioning the logic behind the restrictions. The proposed regulations would create three tiers of chip curbs, allowing some U.S. allies full access to American chips. However, most countries would face new limitations, including caps on computing power. "This last-minute Biden administration policy would be a legacy that will be criticized by U.S. industry and the global community," Finkle said. Why It Matters: The Biden administration's proposed export restrictions are part of a broader strategy to concentrate artificial intelligence technology development with allies and on Washington's terms. Nvidia and other semiconductor companies are preparing for potential impacts from these restrictions. The Biden government is considering a fresh sanction on the export of AI chips used in data centers, both on a country and company basis, before the transition to the Republican government led by Donald Trump on Jan. 20. The proposed rules could enact three tiers of chip curbs, affecting the global semiconductor market and potentially altering the competitive landscape. Read Also: Biden's Final Chip Curbs Set To Shake AI Markets: 10 ETFs With High Stakes In Nvidia, AMD Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Image via Shutterstock NVDANVIDIA Corp$138.54-1.14%Overview Rating:Good75%Technicals Analysis1000100Financials Analysis600100WatchlistOverviewMarket News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Nvidia and AI Chip Stocks Brace for Impact as Biden Administration Considers New China Export Ban: Report - NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA)

New curbs could restrict Nvidia's AI chip shipments, with three-tier export rules favoring allies and barring Tier 3 nations like China. Nvidia Corp NVDA and rival semiconductor chip companies could be hit with one more embargo from the Biden administration to China to concentrate artificial intelligence technology development with allies and on Washington's terms. The Biden government weighed a fresh sanction on the export of AI chips used in data centers on both a country and company basis before passing the baton to the Republican government headed by Donald Trump on January 20, Bloomberg reports. Washington could enact three tiers of chip curbs, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. Also Read: Wall Street Bullish on Nvidia Following Advanced AI Development Announcement at CES 2025 U.S. allies, including Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, can avail themselves of unrestricted access to American chips in the first tier, according to Bloomberg's report. U.S.-headquartered companies can apply for universal validated end-user designation after maintaining at least 50% of their total computing power on American soil. Companies can deploy computing power, and firms headquartered apply for U.S. government permission to ship chips to data centers provided that only up to 25% of their total computing power is located outside of Tier 1 countries and up to 7% in any one Tier 2 country. According to the report, countries under the second tier can ship maximum computing power to a nation of up to 50,000 graphic processing units from 2025 to 2027. However, individual companies can expand their limits subject to VEU status in each country where they wish to build data centers. The third, most restrictive tier affects China, Macau, Russia, and all countries where the U.S. maintains an arms embargo, Bloomberg noted. Shipments to data centers in those places are prohibited. The U.S. sanctions will also limit the export of closed AI model weights. Companies cannot host robust closed model weights in Tier 3 countries. Leading AI beneficiaries included Nvidia, Broadcom Inc AVGO, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co TSM, reaching trillion-dollar valuations in 2024. The Biden government's semiconductor sanctions intensified with the 2020 pandemic in China, which disrupted global semiconductor supply chains and triggered a semiconductor chip crisis. The U.S. and other countries remain focused on ramping up their semiconductor base domestically to mitigate unwarranted disruptions. Previously, the U.S. canvassed its allies to restrict semiconductor exports to China, citing national security threats. Semiconductor chip stocks experienced significant growth in 2024, driven by the AI boom that fueled the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indices to rise by 23%-29%. A third of the world's 10 companies with valuations exceeding $1 trillion in 2024 belonged to the chip industry. Nvidia's valuation crossed $3 trillion in 2024, as its GPUs became essential for developing AI models. Similarly, Broadcom remained propelled by demand for its custom chips from Big Tech giants. Nvidia and Apple Inc AAPL supplier Taiwan Semiconductor advanced its production roadmap, remaining on course to manufacture 2nm chips in Taiwan and commercialize 4nm chips at its Arizona facility. Nvidia had maintained a lack of impact from the semiconductor embargo. However, peer chip companies canvassed the government to go softer on their sanctions on China. Price Action: NVDA stock closed lower by 0.02% at $140.11 Wednesday. Also Read: Intel Partners with Amazon Cloud to Drive Next-Gen Smart Vehicle Tech, Wins Stellantis, Karma Auto As Clients Image via Shutterstock Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Nvidia Slams Biden for Trying to 'Preempt' Trump With Chip Rules

Nvidia Corp. criticized new chip export restrictions that are expected to be announced soon, saying the White House was trying to undercut the incoming Trump administration by imposing last-minute rules. The looming changes, which Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, would cap the sale of US artificial intelligence chips on both a country and company basis -- a move that would more tightly limit exports to most of the world. It's part of a yearslong US effort to keep the latest technology away from China and Russia.

Biden's Final Chip Curbs Set To Shake AI Markets: 10 ETFs With High Stakes In Nvidia, AMD - Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD), AOT Growth and Innovation ETF (NASDAQ:AOTG)

New tiered export framework prioritizes allies while imposing strict limits on adversaries to curb AI and military advancements. As Washington ramps up chip export restrictions to unfriendly countries, Nvidia Corp. NVDA and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD are in the midst of a geopolitical power shift that could disrupt the semiconductor industry's global landscape. In a report shared Monday, Bloomberg outlined the Biden administration's imminent release of updated export rules targeting advanced semiconductors. The new measures, expected to drop Friday, intensify the U.S.'s strategic efforts to slow China's technological and military advancements by restricting access to high-performance computing chips. New AI Export Framework: Allies And Adversaries The regulations will reportedly create a three-tiered structure for semiconductor exports, emphasizing access tiers for key U.S. allies, neutral nations, and restricted countries. China is expected to fall under the most severe tier, joining nations such as Russia, Iran, and Venezuela. This tier-based framework allows certain companies in restricted countries to bypass national limits by agreeing to U.S. security protocols and human rights standards. These entities, designated as validated end users, would have higher caps for chip purchases, a move aimed at encouraging safer AI development globally. The measures expand the sweeping export restrictions initiated in October 2022, which already limited sales of advanced AI chips like Nvidia's Hopper GPUs. These earlier rules also prohibited U.S. firms and individuals from supporting Chinese chip development without explicit government approval. Nvidia And AMD Under Scrutiny Nvidia's specialized A800 and H800 chips, developed to comply with prior regulations, could now fall under new restrictions, potentially denting AI giant's upcoming revenues. According to data firm FactSet, China accounts for approximately 16% of Nvidia's revenue, making it the company's second-largest market after the U.S. This marks a decline from 25% prior to the 2022 export restrictions. In 2023, AMD generated roughly $3.4 billion in revenue from China, including Hong Kong, according to Statista. This represents 15% of the company's total revenue of $22.7 billion. Key ETFs Tied To Nvidia And AMD Several ETFs heavily exposed to Nvidia and AMD could face ripple effects: Top ETFs Holding Nvidia (Percentage of Holdings): ProShares Ultra Semiconductors USD: 34.96% Strive U.S. Semiconductor ETF SHOC: 21.10% YieldMax Target 12 Semiconductor Option SOXY: 20.50% VanEck Semiconductor ETF SMH: 20.21% VanEck Fabless Semiconductor ETF SMHX - 20.11% Top ETFs Holding AMD (Percentage of Holdings): VanEck Video Gaming and Esports ETF ESPO: 8.01% iShares Semiconductor ETF SOXX: 7.12% AOT Growth and Innovation ETF AOTG: 7.07% Invesco PHLX Semiconductor ETF SOXQ: 7.04% REX FANG & Innovation Equity ETF FEPI: 6.95% Read Next: Goldman Sachs Flags Market Correction Risk As Inflation, Trump Policies Stir Uncertainty Image created using photos from Shutterstock. Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs