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Biden government implements new restrictions on AI chip exports to China
The Biden government is all set to introduce new restrictions on the export of AI chips to China. The new rules aim to prevent fraudsters that target to outwit the government restrictions. The building of new restrictions regarding AI chip exports to China will not start from scratch but it will use existing October restrictions as a foundation. The government is likely to block the AI chips that do not fully comply with the regulations. Moreover, they may demand that companies exporting AI chips to China report their shipments.
The U.S. Department of Commerce has not commented on this matter. The Biden administration's intention is to mitigate the export of chips and equipment to China to prevent them from strengthening their military, but China has accused the United States for misusing export controls to stifle Chinese companies.
Nvidia, one of the world's leading chipmakers, was previously unable to ship its advanced AI chips to Chinese customers due to government restrictions. However, they later introduced modified variants designed for the Chinese market that skirted these export controls. The upcoming restrictions will focus on AI chips used in data centers and aim to close the gap on chips that are not currently covered by existing regulations.
The new regulations will not apply to chips that are primarily designed for laptops. However, the regulations will need the companies to inform the Commerce Department when filling orders for powerful consumer chips to ensure they are not used in ways that pose national security risks.
The government will no longer consider "bandwidth parameter" while determining whether a specific AI chip should be subject to export restrictions or not, but it will be decided based on their performance speed alone, and another measurement called "performance density."
These updates on regulations may also have loopholes that enable Chinese companies to access American AI chips through Chinese units located overseas.
The new rules are not expected to restrict access to U.S. cloud computing services, but the U.S. plans to seek feedback on risks associated with such access.