US curbs AI chip exports from Nvidia to some Middle East countries
The US expanded the restriction of听别虫辫辞谤迟蝉听of sophisticated Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices artificial-intelligence听肠丑颈辫s beyond China to other regions including听蝉辞尘别听肠辞耻苍迟谤颈别蝉听in the听惭颈诲诲濒别听East.
狈惫颈诲颈补听said in a regulatory filing this week that the听肠耻谤产蝉, which affect its A100 and H100听肠丑颈辫s designed to speed up machine-learning tasks, would not have an “immediate material impact” on its results.
Rival AMD also received an informed letter with similar restrictions, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters, adding that the move has no material impact on its revenue.
US officials听耻蝉ually impose export controls for national security reasons. A similar move announced last year signaled an escalation of the US crackdown on China’s technological capabilities, but it was not immediately clear what risks were posed by听别虫辫辞谤迟蝉听to the听惭颈诲诲濒别听East.
In a separate statement,聽狈惫颈诲颈补听said the new licensing requirement “doesn’t affect a meaningful portion of our revenue. We are working with the US government to address this matter.”
The US Commerce Department, which normally administers new licensing requirements on听别虫辫辞谤迟蝉, did not immediately return a request for comment.
Last September AMD said it had received new license requirements that would halt听别虫辫辞谤迟蝉听of its MI250 artificial-intelligence听肠丑颈辫s to China.
Nvidia, AMD and Intel聽have since then all disclosed plans to create less powerful听础滨听chips that can be exported to the Chinese market.
Nvidia, which gave no reason for the new restrictions in the filing dated Aug. 28, last year said US officials informed them the rule “will address the risk that products may be听耻蝉ed in, or diverted to, a ‘military end听耻蝉e’ or ‘military end听耻蝉er’ in China.”
狈惫颈诲颈补听this week did not specify which聽肠辞耻苍迟谤颈别蝉听in the听惭颈诲诲濒别听贰补蝉迟听were affected. The company derived most of its $13.5 billion in sales in its fiscal quarter ended July 30听蹿谤辞尘听the United States, China and Taiwan. About 13.9% of sales came听蹿谤辞尘听all other聽肠辞耻苍迟谤颈别蝉听combined, and聽狈惫颈诲颈补听does not provide a revenue breakout听蹿谤辞尘听the听惭颈诲诲濒别听East.
“During the second quarter of fiscal year 2024, the听鲍厂G (US government) informed听耻蝉聽of an additional licensing requirement for a subset of A100 and H100 products destined to certain customers and other regions, including听蝉辞尘别听肠辞耻苍迟谤颈别蝉听in the听惭颈诲诲濒别听East,”聽狈惫颈诲颈补听said in the Aug. 28 filing.
Last year’s announcements came as tensions bubbled over the fate of Taiwan, where听肠丑颈辫s for聽狈惫颈诲颈补听and almost every other major听肠丑颈辫聽firm are manufactured.
In October 2022, the Biden administration went a step further when it published a sweeping set of export controls, including a measure to cut off China听蹿谤辞尘听certain semiconductor听肠丑颈辫s made anywhere in the world with US equipment. The move vastly expanded Washington’s reach in its bid to slow Beijing’s technological and military advances.
Japan and the Netherlands followed up with similar rules earlier this year.
Without American听础滨听chips听蹿谤辞尘听companies like聽狈惫颈诲颈补听and AMD, Chinese organizations will be unable to cost-effectively carry out the kind of advanced computing听耻蝉ed for image and speech recognition, among many other tasks.
Image recognition and natural language processing are common in consumer applications like smartphones that can answer queries and tag photos. They also have military听耻蝉es such as scouring satellite imagery for weapons or bases and filtering digital communications for intelligence-gathering purposes. – Reuters
