(Bloomberg) — 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.
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.
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.
At the top level, a small number of US 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.
Countries in the last group would be able to bypass their national limits — and get their own, significantly higher caps — by agreeing to a set of US government security requirements and human rights standards, one of the people said. 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.
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 US leadership,” Nvidia said.
Every data center and business is already incorporating AI through what the company calls accelerating computing, Nvidia said. “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 chipmaker said.
The measures build on years of curbs that already limited the ability of American chipmakers like Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. to sell advanced processors in China and Russia. The US also has sought to prevent adversary nations from accessing cutting-edge US technology through intermediaries in places like the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Data centers are strategically crucial because companies use them to develop and run AI models, sometimes across national borders.
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.
