U.S. Drafts Global AI Chip Export Controls!
US mulls new global AI chip export curbs, license required for shipments; draft rules target NVIDIA, AMD exports worldwide. Policy in flux, may impact AI infrastructure build.
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The U.S. Trump administration is considering introducing new export control measures on AI chips. In the future, companies exporting AI chips produced by NVIDIA, AMD, and other firms will be required to first obtain approval from the U.S. government.
According to the draft document, companies exporting U.S.-origin AI accelerators will be required to apply for licenses from the U.S. Department of Commerce. The list of restricted export destinations will be expanded from the current approximately 40 countries and regions to the entire world. The Trump administration stated that this move does not constitute a complete ban on chip exports, but rather establishes a licensing regime subject to U.S. government review.
In terms of specific rules, if a company’s procurement volume does not exceed 1,000 NVIDIA GB300 GPUs, it will be eligible for a simplified review process. For the deployment of larger-scale AI chip clusters, companies must first obtain pre-approval and apply for an export license. In some cases, companies may also be required to provide business model information or undergo on-site inspections of data centers.
If a single company deploys more than 200,000 GB300 GPUs in the same country, the local government will also be required to participate in the review process. The U.S. may only permit shipments to allied countries with which it maintains security cooperation relationships.
In addition, the U.S. government has warned that using any domestic vendor’s AI accelerators anywhere in the world could violate U.S. trade restrictions. Since high-end AI chips are currently supplied primarily by U.S. companies, countries building AI infrastructure remain highly dependent on American chip technology.
The policy is still in the discussion stage and has not been finalized; its content may still be adjusted in the future.
