U.S officials are debating a new regulatory framework for the export of artificial intelligence chips and are considering requiring foreign nations to invest in U.S. AI data centres or provide security guarantees as a condition for granting exports of 200,000 chips or more, according to a document seen by Reuters.
While the rules are subject to change, they plan to attempt to regulate the flow of AI chips into the U.S. allies and partners since President Trump’s administration has rescinded its predecessors’ AI diffusion rules. This new proposal could give the Trump administration more leverage to negotiate investments in the U.S., one of Trump’s top priorities, as it decides how to distribute AI chips among interested countries.
These rules are a marked departure from former President Joe Biden’s approach, which was based on the premise that close U.S. allies should be exempt from most export restrictions on chips. It sought to keep a significant amount of AI infrastructure build-out in the U.S. and route purchases through U.S. cloud computing companies.
The proposed rules will not affect blacklisted countries such as Russia, which were unable to purchase U.S. chips under the Biden administration’s rules. China, which was among those countries, got a green light in December to receive NVIDIA’s second-most advanced AI chips. However, those shipments are held up due to national security requirements and may cause China to hesitate in moving forward with the imports.
Software Restrictions, Export Control
According to the document, even small AI chip installations of less than 1,000 chips could require a license. To qualify for exemption, exporters such as NVIDIA would have to monitor them, and the recipient would need to agree to use software that would not allow the chips to be linked together to form a “cluster,” an industry term used to describe large groups of chips.
Foreign firms interested in acquiring up to 100,000 chips would need to provide government-to-government assurances, the document states. It said the Trump administration has already required such assurances from Saudi Arabia for the country to import advanced chips. Installations of over 200,000 chips may require visits from U.S. export control officials.
The U.S. Commerce Department confirmed in a statement posted on X that it is debating these new rules, but claimed they would be different from a “burdensome, overreaching, and disastrous” framework proposed by the Biden administration. Instead, the Commerce Department plans to follow the framework of deals to send U.S. chips to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, where both countries have agreed to invest in the U.S. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. NVIDIA and AMD did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
(With inputs from Reuters)
