Biden administration announces new rules for AI chip exports, NVIDIA and others protest, saying they will 'undermine American competitiveness'

The Biden administration in the United States announced the 'Interim Final Rule on the Proliferation of AI,' stating that 'AI is rapidly becoming the center of both national security and economic power.' There will be no restrictions on exporting AI chips to 18 major allies and partner countries, but some countries will have caps on the total amount of computing power available. However, industry companies such as NVIDIA and Oracle have voiced opposition.

FACT SHEET: Ensuring US Security and Economic Strength in the Age of Artificial Intelligence | The White House

Biden's administration proposes new rules on exporting AI chips, provoking an industry pushback | AP News

Commerce unveils global AI export controls
https://www.axios.com/pro/tech-policy/2025/01/13/ai-chip-export-restrictions-nvidia-biden

US Further Restricts Nvidia AI Exports, Caps GPU Purchases for Select Nations
https://uk.pcmag.com/ai/156245/us-further-restricts-nvidia-ai-exports-caps-gpu-purchases-for-some-nations

The six key items in the interim final rule are:

1: No restrictions will be applied to sales of AI chips to 18 major allies and partners, allowing countries and regions with strong technology protection regimes and technology ecosystems that align with U.S. national security and foreign policy interests to seamlessly purchase large quantities of AI chips.

2. AI chips with computing power equivalent to 1,700 advanced GPUs, which are primarily needed by universities, medical institutions and research institutes, can be used without a license and will not count towards the national chip cap.

3: By meeting high security and reliability standards, entities headquartered in major US allies or partner countries can obtain the status of 'Universal Certified End User (UVEU),' which indicates high reliability. With UVEU, they can deploy up to 7% of the world's AI computing capacity (equivalent to hundreds of thousands of chips). UVEU is awarded permanently and globally.

4) Subject to meeting similar security requirements, entities headquartered in countries that are not of concern can apply for “nationally recognized end user” status and purchase AI chips with the computing power of up to 320,000 GPUs over the next two years.

5. Non-certified end-user entities headquartered outside major allied countries may also purchase AI chips with a computing power of up to 50,000 GPUs per country.

6. Governments that sign an intergovernmental agreement to foster a global ecosystem of shared values on the development, deployment and use of AI could double the number of AI chips they can import, up to the equivalent of the computing power of 100,000 GPUs, by working with the US on export controls, clean energy and technology security.

The 18 'major allies and partners' are Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom.

The interim final rule has drawn criticism from companies such as NVIDIA and Oracle, who say it will undermine American competitiveness and stifle innovation.

Companies have a year to comply with the rules, and Commerce Secretary Gina LeMond said the 120-day comment period is being set up to 'give the next administration an opportunity to gather feedback. I'm hopeful that the next administration will respond with feedback and potentially make changes to the rules.'