US eases Biden-era semiconductor export curbs, sparking new AI diplomacy
Tareq Amin, CEO of Humain, and Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, attend the Saudi-US Investment Forum, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia May 13, 2025. — Reuters pic
Wednesday, 14 May 2025 9:10 AM MYT
WASHINGTON, May 14 — The United States rescinded further export controls Tuesday on advanced computing semiconductors, answering calls by countries that said they were being shut out from crucial technology needed to develop artificial intelligence.
The so-called “AI diffusion rule,” set to take effect on May 15, was part of a series of actions taken by then-President Joe Biden just before leaving office in January that sought to make it harder for Beijing to access advanced technology.
“The Trump Administration will pursue a bold, inclusive strategy to share American AI technology with trusted foreign countries around the world, while keeping the technology out of the hands of our adversaries,” said Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Jeffrey Kessler.
Kessler criticised the previous administration’s approach, adding: “We reject the Biden Administration’s attempt to impose its own ill-conceived and counterproductive AI policies on the American people.”
Washington has expanded its efforts in recent years to curb exports of state-of-the-art chips to China, concerned that these can be used to advance Beijing’s military systems and otherwise undermine American dominance in AI.
Biden’s proposed rule aimed to avert any circumvention of chip supply to China from other countries.
The Commerce Department said the rule would have damaged American innovation and diplomatic relations with numerous countries that would have been “downgraded to second-tier status.”
The rule divided the world’s countries into three tiers, with each tier having its own level of restrictions.
Top tier countries, like Japan and South Korea, would have continued to face no export restrictions, while Tier 2 regions, which included countries like Mexico and Portugal, would have seen a cap on the amount of chips they could receive.
Some US lawmakers feared the cap would have incentivised countries to go to China for AI chips, spurring the superpower’s development of state-of-the-art technology.
Chipmakers, including Nvidia and AMD, lobbied against the tiered restrictions and saw their share prices rise last week when the Trump administration indicated it would rethink the rule.
As an alternative, the Commerce Department reminded AI actors that using Huawei Ascend, the Chinese tech giant’s most advanced chip, violated US export controls.
It also issued a warning about potential consequences of allowing US AI chips to be used for training Chinese AI models. — AFP
The Dealmaker and the Peacemaker.
ReplyDeleteSyria is about to become the fifth Arab state to sign the Ibrahim Accords. President Ahmad al Sharaa flew all the way to Riyadh at a moments notice to shake Trumps hand with a smiling Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman watching.
All it took was the lifting of sanctions.
I think the future of Bloodymir Pootin's Khmeimim Air Base and naval base in Tartus grows uncertain...
Stay tuned....
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/trump-urged-syrias-al-sharaa-to-join-abraham-accords-with-israel-white-house-says/
Wakakakaka… the current Syria reign is as real as its predecessor!
DeleteAhmad al Sharaa has the blessing from the Yank just as Bashar al-Assad has from Russia.
All for the sake of the new Trump tower in Damascus.
ReplyDeleteThe Dealmaker and the Peacemaker.
ReplyDeleteHe just signed a deal to sell 160 Boeings for 200 billion to Qatar
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpqe93rz5qvo.amp
All he has to do is to accept Qatar’s 747 “donation”. How can he refuse? That would be insulting by Arab culture to refuse a donation. Didn’t Jibby and Fat Lady use this “reason” to accept donations from Arab leaders?
Many have been misled by twisted western reporting about chip trades.
ReplyDeleteMost r just concentrating on high ended 5-3nm cpu structures used mostly on smart phones.
Yet, the dorminant player in chip trades r the 28+nm chipset used in almost am sectors of the industries. The global semiconductor market value was approximately US$618 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach US$1 trillion by 2030. Mature process technologies, including 28nm and older, are heavily concentrated in China and Taiwan, with over 70% of global semiconductor foundry capacity in those regions. The 28nm node is expected to be a long-lived node for various applications, including FPGAs, navigation chips, and 4G transceivers.
With rapid catching up in semiconductor processing & fabrication in China in the last 5 yr, China has become a dominant force of chip supplier, outside of smart phone cpu.