[Text/Observer Network Xiong Chaoyi] In January this year, on the occasion of the change of administration and power transfer in the United States, the Biden administration further "strengthened" export controls on chips used for artificial intelligence (AI).
According to exclusive reports by three sources close to the matter on April 29, the Trump administration is considering revising this export control. The original regulations divided the world into multiple tiers to restrict the number of advanced AI chips that countries and regions could obtain. Sources said that officials in the Trump administration are considering abandoning this "tiered approach" and replacing it with a "global licensing system" based on intergovernmental agreements.
In fact, this policy, which was introduced by Biden just before his term ended, had already been collectively opposed by American tech companies like NVIDIA and various industry organizations at the time. Some insiders claimed that US restrictions on chip access would prompt countries to purchase related technologies from China.
To this argument, some US lawmakers echoed and hyped it up. Even seven Republican senators wrote a letter to US Commerce Secretary Raimondo in mid-April, requesting the revocation of this regulation. These politicians claimed in their letter that this restriction measure by the Biden administration would stimulate buyers, especially "second-tier" buyers, to turn to China's so-called "unregulated cheap alternatives".
March 20, 2024, Chandler, Arizona, USA, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger shows President Biden a semiconductor wafer. Visual China
Wilbur Ross, who served as US Commerce Secretary during Trump's first term, said on the same day that an intergovernmental agreement was an option. "There are voices calling for the cancellation of the tiered system, and I think relevant adjustments are still ongoing."
One of the sources said that more broadly, this architecture may be related to Trump's overall trade strategy of negotiating agreements with certain countries, which would make it easier for the US to use access to American-made chips as leverage in other negotiations. Commerce Secretary Raimondo once said at a meeting in March that he hoped to incorporate export controls into trade negotiations.
Other messages suggest that the new regulations may also include lowering the threshold for license exemptions. Under the current regulations, orders equivalent to the computational capacity of about 1,700 high-performance NVIDIA H100 chips are not subject to national quota restrictions and only need to be reported to the US government, without requiring a permit. A source said that the Trump administration is considering lowering this exemption standard to the computational capacity equivalent to 500 H100 chips.
Regarding the content of this Reuters report, a spokesperson for the US Department of Commerce refused to comment, and the White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to the request for comment.
Reuters pointed out that for several months, Trump administration officials have repeatedly claimed that they want to make this rule "stricter but simpler." However, some experts believe that canceling these "tiers" will make the rule more complicated.
Ken Glueck, executive vice president of Oracle Corporation, criticized the current regulations, saying that these "tiers" made no sense and cited an example — Israel and Yemen are both in "Tier Two."
"I'm not surprised that they are re-examining this issue," Glueck said, adding that he didn't know about the Trump administration's plans but expected significant modifications to the regulation.
February 8, 2017, then Intel CEO Brian Krzanich meets with Trump at the White House. Fox News
On January 13, former US President Biden announced an export control policy that further restricted the export of AI chips and technology to most countries. The new regulations allowed the closest US allies unrestricted use of American AI technology while restricting exports to China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and most other countries.
This restriction regulation, named the "Framework for Export Control of AI Dissemination," established a three-tiered licensing system for chips used in AI computing data centers. Tier One includes seven members of the Group of Seven (G7) and countries such as Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Chinese Taipei, the Netherlands, and Ireland, among approximately 18 countries and regions, which will face no restrictions.
Tier Two includes approximately 120 countries such as Singapore, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, where exports exceeding the quota will be subject to quantity limitations and licensing restrictions. Tier Three includes countries and regions such as mainland China (including Hong Kong and Macau), Iran, Russia, and North Korea, where American companies will essentially be unable to export to these countries.
However, this move has met with strong resistance from all sides. Not only did the American semiconductor industry strongly oppose it, but the EU and others also condemned these new regulations. Among them, well-known American tech companies like NVIDIA and Oracle also voiced opposition.
NVIDIA explicitly stated at the time that these restrictive new regulations, under the pretext of "anti-China," were unhelpful in enhancing US security and would only weaken America's global competitiveness and undermine its innovation leadership. At the time, Ken Glueck, executive vice president of Oracle Corporation, also published a long blog post on the company's website criticizing this regulation, calling it one of the most destructive strikes against the American tech industry in history.
It is worth noting that apart from the Biden administration, the Trump administration has also not stopped pressuring China. In February, foreign media reported that the Trump administration was formulating stricter semiconductor restrictions and forcing key allies to increase restrictions on China's chip industry, signaling that the new US administration would expand the technological restrictions imposed by the previous administration on China.
In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian then responded, pointing out that China had repeatedly expressed its firm stance on the US malicious blockade and suppression of China's semiconductor industry. By politicizing, generalizing security issues, and instrumentalizing economic and technological issues, the US continues to impose additional export controls on Chinese chips, coercing other countries to suppress China's semiconductor industry. This behavior hinders the development of the global semiconductor industry and will ultimately backfire, harming both others and itself.
This article is an exclusive contribution by Observer Network and cannot be reprinted without permission.
Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7498948303166390838/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author. You can express your attitude by using the [Like/Dislike] buttons below.