A bipartisan group of US senators unveiled a bill this week that would block the Trump administration from loosening rules that restrict Beijing’s access to artificial intelligence chips from Nvidia and AMD for 2.5 years.
The bill, known as the SAFE CHIPS Act, would require the Commerce Department, which oversees export controls, to deny any licence requests for buyers in China, Russia, Iran or North Korea to receive American AI chips more advanced than the ones they are currently allowed to obtain.
The requirement would last 30 months, after which, the Commerce Department would have to brief Congress on any proposed rule changes a month before they take effect.
Also on AF: China Chip Designer Moore Threads Soars 500% in Shanghai IPO
The legislation, which was co-sponsored by both Republican and Democrat senators, represents a rare effort led, in part, by Trump’s own party to stop him from further relaxing tech export restrictions on China.
“Denying Beijing access to (the best American) AI chips is essential to our national security,” Ricketts said in a statement on Thursday.
The bill comes as the Trump administration is considering giving US chipmaker Nvidia permission to sell its H200 artificial intelligence chips to China. The chip is considerably more powerful than the H20 chips that Nvidia is currently allowed to sell in China.
Faced with new Chinese export curbs on the rare earth metals that global tech companies rely on, Trump’s Commerce Department imposed and then rolled back curbs on Nvidia’s H20 AI chips.
As part of negotiations with China to delay its own rare earth controls, Trump pushed back by a year a rule to restrict US tech exports to units of already-blacklisted Chinese companies. He has also vowed to nix a Biden-era rule restricting AI chip exports globally to countries based in part on concerns around chip smuggling to China.
But China hawks in Washington fear that Beijing could use prized US chips to supercharge its military with AI-powered weapons and more powerful intelligence and surveillance capabilities.
Greg Allen, a senior adviser at Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, called the bill a common-sense measure that should be passed urgently, noting that the United States cannot dissuade China from seeking to swiftly end its reliance on US technology.
“The only choice for America is whether or not we should sell China the technology to make their decoupling strategy fast and convenient,” he said.
Nvidia lobbying
The SAFE CHIPS bill comes on the heels of a meeting between Nvidia chief Jensen Huang and Trump, in which the two discussed China exports.
The US chipmaker — which became the world’s most valuable firm on the back of the global AI frenzy this year — has steadily lobbied for fewer restrictions on selling to China. Nvidia dominated China’s AI chip market with a 95% share but Huang said last month its share was now down to zero.
Nvidia is not the only US chipmaker itching to sell in China. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) CEO Lisa Su said on Thursday her company had licences to ship some of its MI 308 chips to China. She said AMD was prepared to pay a 15% tax to the US government if it ships them.
Meanwhile, Nvidia has, recently. also opposed a separate proposed piece of legislation that would have required it to offer to sell its chips to US customers before obtaining licences to sell those chips to “countries of concern.” Huang has argued the bill would restrict global competition in AI markets.
Huang has also repeatedly criticised the US export control regime, calling it a ‘failure’ in the past, while also cautioning against the rapid rise of local Chinese chipmakers like Huawei and Cambricon aiming to fill Nvidia’s shoes.
Last month, speaking to the Financial Times, he said that China was “going to win the AI race.” In a later statement, he “said China was “nanoseconds behind America in AI.” A month earlier, he said that the US could win the AI battle if the world, including China’s massive developer base, ran on Nvidia systems.
“We… need to be in China to win their developers,” he said.
On Wednesday, Huang reiterated those concerns.
According to a Nikkei Asia report, Huang said China would soon look to export its AI technologies worldwide, if the US lets Chinese competitors like Huawei run away with the market.
China had a vision to create an AI version of its Belt and Road infrastructure initiative, he said.
- Reuters, with additional editing and inputs from Vishakha Saxena
Also read:
Nvidia’s Biggest Chinese Buyer Can No Longer Use Its Chips For AI
Powerful Nvidia Chip May Put Chinese Chipmakers in Choppy Waters
US ‘Likely To Delay’ Chip Tariffs To Keep China Ties Calm
China Blocks Use of Foreign AI Chips in State Data Centres
China ‘Cutting Electricity Bills In Half’ For Its AI Chip Firms – FT
Nvidia’s Top AI Chips Won’t Be Sold to China, Other States: Trump
China Steps up Checks on Nvidia AI Chips at Major Ports, FT Says
China Pressing Tech Giants To Stop Buying Nvidia’s H20 AI Chips
Chinese Tech Giants ‘Want Nvidia Chips’ Despite Beijing Pushback
Nvidia, AMD ‘Agreed to Pay 15% of China Chip Revenue to US’
Chinese AI Firms, Chipmakers Form Alliance To Ditch Foreign Tech
Nvidia’s Latest AI Chip For China Finds Few Takers
Huang Voices Disappointment After China Bans Nvidia’s AI Chips
China’s Huawei, SMIC ‘to Ramp Up Production’ of Newest AI Chip
China’s Huawei ‘Hoping Its New AI Chip Can Outpower Nvidia’
Satellite Images Show Huawei’s Expanding Chip Facilities – FT
Beijing And Its AI Billions
Nvidia’s Bid To Stop Huawei
