U.S. officials are considering tightening controls on export controls designed to minimize access to artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China.
Tighter regulations include cracking down on the level of computing power in chips that can be exported, according to people close to the parties. The rules could be updated by late July, people familiar with the matter said.
Such restrictions on the sale of powerful computing chips have raised concerns for some of the industry’s major players.
Colette Kress, chief financial officer of NVIDIA, one of the world’s leading semiconductor manufacturers, commented at an investor conference on June 28.
“…if implemented, [restrictions] The result will be a permanent loss of opportunity for American industry to compete and lead in one of the world’s largest markets…”
Kress said the introduction of such regulations would not have an “immediate impact” on the company’s financial performance. In late May, the boom in AI chips briefly pushed Nvidia’s value to his $1 trillion mark.
Cointelegraph has reached out to the U.S. Department of Commerce for further comment on the potential decision.
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Restrictions on AI chip sales in China were initially issued by the Biden administration in October 2022 to slow down the semiconductor industry.
The October ban blocked Chinese developers’ access to some of the more advanced chips on the market, including Nvidia’s A100 chip and the latest version of the H100. These two he chips are he one of the most popular chips in high level AI development.
In May, NVIDIA reported that its earnings forecast for the second quarter was 50% higher than market expectations, with the company’s stock also up 28%.
Around the same time, the company released additional AI-powered tools, including an AI supercomputer it created to help developers create a successor to ChatGPT.
Meanwhile, in China, local developers are looking for ways to sidestep the impact of US sanctions. Companies are reportedly researching new ways to develop AI chips using combinations of weaker semiconductors and currently available chips.
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