Nvidia’s Next Headache: New Push For Export Controls in Wake of Spy Scandal

AI Summary

U.S. officials are considering tighter export controls on advanced AI chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment, including measures affecting Nvidia chips and Chinese access to them. Commerce Department staff have renewed efforts to draft rules, though it remains uncertain whether department leadership will advance them.

New export controls on the sale of advanced Nvidia AI chips to China may be back on the table. In late October, White House officials shared feedback with Congressional staff on export control measures that are under consideration as part of a broader collection of annual policy legislation known as the National Defense Authorization Act, according to several people familiar with the matter. Those people interpreted the Trump administration’s willingness to engage on the bills as a sign that it may not seek to block them, as it has in the past. At the same time, in recent weeks staffers in the U.S. Department of Commerce have made a renewed push to create rules around two key areas of export control policy, according to current and former Commerce officials. Those areas include tooling for lithography machines, a key component of the semiconductor supply chain, as well as restrictions intended to prevent Chinese companies from remotely accessing advanced AI chips made by companies like Nvidia. Still, Commerce Department leadership hasn’t followed through on efforts to create new export control policies in the past and could hold off once again, the current and former officials said.